Even as EU leaders plan to extend an olive branch to London by starting internal discussions about a future trade relationship, France and Germany have pushed to include a reference to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in draft conclusions prepared for next week’s European Council summit, according to three EU diplomats. [...]
The push by Germany and France, the EU’s biggest and most powerful members, to include such language in the first paragraph of the draft conclusions (before any other Brexit issues are mentioned) is a reminder to London that the first phase of Brexit negotiations is nowhere near completed and that the divorce terms are not settled. [...]
EU leaders seem prepared to authorize the start of internal discussions despite a lack of sufficient progress on the main divorce issues. The Council has said such progress is required before it will allow negotiators to move on to the second phase of talks. At the end of the fifth formal round of negotiations last week, the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said the two sides were in “deadlock” over the financial settlement.
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