The situation of the two sides on the eve of negotiations about Britain leaving the European Union could hardly be more different. Whereas British Prime Minister Theresa May is barely clinging to power and her representatives are hastily insisting that London will indeed push forward with the Brexit, German and EU leaders seem relaxed and confident. Deutsche Welle reports.
In an interview with Die Welt newspaper, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel offered what was essentially an invitation for the UK to change its mind.
“It would naturally be best if Britain didn’t leave at all,” Gabriel said. “It doesn’t look like that at the moment, but we want to keep the door open for the British.”
Those sentiments were echoed in an interview to the same publication by Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator. But he also hinted that even should there be a British change of heart, there would be no return to the current status quo.
“The path is open for the British to change their minds and become part of the European Union again,” Verhofstadt told Welt. “But they’ll find a different EU than the one they left, an EU with no special wishes, concessions and unnecessary complexity, but with more powers for Europe.”
German and European leaders are taking care to strike a cordial, cooperative tone ahead the first formal Brexit negotiations in Brussels on Monday. But they clearly think they are playing with stronger hand – in part because the British leadership under May has done so much to weaken its own.