European Union Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier destiny hangs on Brexit breakthrough | Photo Credit: AP, File Image

London: One man in Brussels who will be counting every vote in British parliament on Tuesday is Michel Barnier, the EU's negotiator whose legacy hangs on the success of Brexit. When Britain's Theresa May struck her ill-loved withdrawal deal with Barnier last November, the breakthrough was hailed as a personal victory for the former French minister and even sparked talk of him reaching higher office.

But the deal's drubbing in British Parliament a month later and its uncertain fate in a second attempt on March 12, have put off any victory lap and stoked fears that all could still go very badly, with less than three weeks to go before the March 29 deadline.

"The EU stands united. We are not interested in the blame game, we are interested in the result," a testy Barnier said after he briefed EU ambassadors on Brexit on Friday.

The union's chief negotiator, a veteran French politician whose best days were seen as behind him, has seemed to relish the challenge of wrangling with Britain and keeping the Europeans together. Perhaps prematurely, he beamed in November when he stepped up to announce the draft accord, the fruit of what he described as 17 months of "very intense negotiations".

"There's no more green. White is the new green," he said as he leafed triumphantly through the 585-page withdrawal agreement, joking about the coloured ink used on passages still under debate. When Britain voted in June 2016 to leave the EU, there were fears in Brussels that it could trigger a domino effect that would see the bloc splinter.

The deal being pushed through parliament won't keep Britain in, but Barnier has been hailed by his peers for keeping the other 27 members united behind his negotiating strategy till the end.

And in doing so, he revived his own career, perhaps even placing himself in line once again for the post he was passed over for in 2014 -- president of the European Commission.

"Barnier demonstrated flexibility and great political savvy in the negotiations. His job was to keep the 27 together and to have a frank dialogue with the British," said Jean-Dominique Giuliani of the Robert Schuman Foundation. "The 27 have always backed him up and trusted him," he added.

- Saved by Europe -

A convinced European, the 67-year-old former minister had hoped to take a role in building rather than dismantling the union five years ago when he sought the backing of the centre-right EPP to take Brussels' top job. But his own French conservative party failed to swing behind him, and former Luxembourg premier Jean-Claude Juncker got the job instead.

Isolated in Brussels, Barnier later hoped to return to his homeland of Savoie in the French Alps as president of the regional assembly, but again local barons opposed him. Friends say these failures left him bitter, but it was Europe that came to the rescue, albeit with a role mitigating what he sees as the "lose-lose" decision of British voters to quit the union.

His former rival Juncker named him a special adviser, then handed him the tricky but high-profile task of agreeing divorce terms with the Brits. Burdened by Brexit, Barnier renounced EPP support to replace Juncker later this year -- and the party picked little-known Bavarian MEP Manfred Weber.

But Brexit has allowed Barnier to stay above the fray ahead of May's European elections, and he could yet have a role in the horsetrading to come.

- 'No regrets' -

Even though late French leader Charles de Gaulle opposed Britain's entry into the then European Common Market, Barnier voted in a 1972 French referendum to allow it in. "I have never regretted that vote because there is strength in unity," he has repeatedly declared.

Barnier served variously as France's environment, European affairs, agriculture and foreign minister -- learning the dossiers that now bedevil the complicated break-up talks. And in Brussels, where he has been commissioner for finance and for the single market, he mastered the arcane mysteries of EU law.

Britain's task was a hard one: the dissolution of legal, political and trade ties built over four decades after a narrow majority of voters backed an exit rejected by the bulk of the political elite.

Barnier's political challenge was almost as complex. He is the Brexit point man not only for his nominal employer the European Commission, but also for the 27 remaining member states.

But has held on while Britain repeatedly changed its own main negotiator and as Prime Minister Theresa May has tried and failed to go above his head and appeal directly to fellow national leaders. If everything goes sour expectations are that the EU 27 will reward him somehow for his work. A Brexit breakthrough would see him become Europe's next major star.



