It was hard not to conclude, watching David Davis and Michel Barnier during their tense joint press conference at the end of the third round of Brexit talks in Brussels, that here were two men – and two sides – largely talking past each other.

For the ever-upbeat Brexit secretary, “concrete progress” had been made – he listed some smaller, discrete areas to do with citizens’ rights – and the UK was being “substantially more flexible and pragmatic” than the EU.



For the EU’s visibly frustrated chief negotiator, there was a lack of “any decisive progress on any of the principal subjects” – although there had been “fruitful” discussions about the Irish border – and Britain was lost in “nostalgia”.

At the heart of the standoff is the conviction that Barnier and the 27 states he represents now plainly have that – despite repeated warnings at the start of the Brexit process – Britain still wants to have its cake and eat it.



The former French cabinet minister said he saw “a sort of nostalgia” in the UK’s position papers: “Specific requests that would amount to continuing to enjoy the benefits of the single market and EU membership, without actually being part of it.”

As France’s EU ambassador, Pierre Sellal, also made clear this week, the EU27 respect the British government’s decision to leave the single market and customs union. But they have the distinct impression the UK is now reluctant to accept the consequences.

In Barnier’s words, London “wants to take back control, it wants to adopt its own standards and regulations, but it also wants to have these standards recognised automatically in the EU – that is what UK papers ask for.

“This is simply impossible. You cannot be outside the single market and shape its legal order … The single market, the EU capacity to regulate, to supervise, to enforce our laws, must not and will not be undermined by Brexit.”

It is this perception of the UK’s ultimate cherry-picking and cake-eating intentions that led the EU this week to quite brutally dismiss the dozen or so British policy papers produced so far as “unsatisfactory”.

To European eyes, most of the papers merely outline an array of options, with no clear preferences, while those that do present a firm position demand the preservation of the status quo. Some, as with Britain’s high-tech-and-trust plan for the Irish border, are just “magical thinking”.

On Thursday’s showing, it seems highly unlikely that Barnier will advise European leaders at their October summit that enough progress has been made on the divorce issues to advance, as Britain wants, to discussion of the future relationship.

The EU negotiator certainly hinted as much, saying he was “quite far” from being able to make such a recommendation and stressing that “time is passing very quickly”. Just two rounds of negotiating rounds remain before the summit.

The press conference also laid painfully bare the the yawning gulf between the two sides over the biggest and most contentious obstacle to an article 50 divorce deal: the financial settlement, or exit bill, on which substantive negotiations have yet to begin.

Barnier said this week’s talks had shown the UK did not feel “legally obliged” to honour its financial obligations after Brexit. Davis said Britain had a “very different legal stance” and the government owed it to taxpayers to challenge the EU.

The profound disagreement between the two sides over the crucial matter of how this bill – crucial to both – should be calculated, let alone its actual amount, is fuelling uncertainty, even mistrust, in Brussels and European capitals over the UK’s real intentions.

Earlier this week, Barnier revealed his frustration at the UK’s repeated demands for more flexibility from the EU, saying it was impossible for him to bend until he knew “two points – our point, and their point”.

But the EU negotiator and his team are unlikely to shift very far from their fundamental negotiating positions, agreed on the basis of a few simple principles by all 27 EU capitals after several months of consultation.

As Barnier made plain yet again on Thursday, the EU’s very legitimacy, and the integrity of its single market, rest on the rule of EU law, the autonomy of EU decision-making, and the acceptance of EU regulations and standards.

Allowing Britain the kind of have-cake-and-eat-it, out-but-in Brexit it still appears to want is, as the chief negotiator said, “simply impossible”.

