Politico: Salzburg Brexit failure stems from insular UK government

There’s a rather more convincing explanation for this massive failure: It’s a failure of the ecosystem of May’s government, rather than the individuals involved. British government machinery tends to be more comfortable executing a task than questioning fundamental assumptions. [...]

This is not the first time that geopolitical disasters have resulted from an overly narrow approach. In the run-up to the Iraq war, British diplomats and spies were tasked with making the case that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. They set about delivering with determination and energy. So successful was this work that, in early 2002, then-CIA Director George Tenet complained to his own spies that “all the good reporting I get is from [MI6].”

Unfortunately, nobody thought to ask the prior question: “Have they actually got these weapons?” The results are now all too well-known: Iraq was invaded on the false premise of a threat from WMD. The country collapsed into anarchy which still plagues it and the wider region, leading directly to the rise of ISIS and a new wave of global terrorism. [...]

Inside this pressure cooker, particularly the extreme pressure that the Brexit process is generating, there is an understandable tendency to focus on the narrow task at hand. This leaves British officials feverishly developing a plan that respects May’s self-defeating red lines rather than the bigger task of finding a plan that can actually be accepted by Europe.

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Politico: Theresa May takes control of Brexit

May’s power grab is confirmation that she has now taken complete control over the process, alongside her chief Brexit adviser, Olly Robbins, and is likely to further fuel accusations that she is moving further away from the Brexiteers in her party who felt reassured by Raab’s appointment.

Speaking at the Brexit Select Committee Tuesday afternoon Robbins said Raab would still be Barnier’s main interlocutor and the prime minister’s statement was simply a reflection that May was in overall charge. [...]

However, it will now fall to Number 10 Downing Street and Robbins’ “Europe Unit” to lead the negotiations with Brussels. “I will lead the negotiations with the European Union, with the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union deputising on my behalf,” May says. “Both of us will be supported by the Cabinet Office Europe Unit and with this in mind the Europe Unit will have overall responsibility for the preparation and conduct of the negotiations, drawing upon support from DExEU and other departments as required.”

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Politico: Brussels sheds no tears for Davis and Johnson

But neither of them has played a prominent role in negotiations over the U.K.’s departure from the European Union next March. The EU’s main interlocutor has long been Oliver Robbins, May’s top Europe advisor (poached from Davis’ Department for Exiting the EU late last year). The bloc’s top Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, made exactly that point at an EU summit late last month. [...]

For Brussels and the EU27 nations, what Britain puts on the negotiating table is far more important than who sits at it. On that score, May’s latest customs and trading proposal was greeted with the same muted shrug as the resignations. [...]

Calling the single market “the heart of the European project,” Barnier said in a speech at the Institute of International and European Affairs think tank: “There will be no damage to it.” He added, “There will be no unraveling of what we’ve achieved.”

For Brussels, May’s push at Chequers for a softer Brexit amounted to an important but still insufficient step toward the U.K.’s eventual acceptance of EU negotiating proposals that have not changed in more than a year. And it was not immediately clear that further resignations, or even the collapse of May’s government, would change anything.

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The Guardian: Brexiters nowhere to be seen as UK raises white flag over EU divorce bill

Faced with such an ultimatum, Charles Grant, the director of the Centre for European Reform, said he believed Britain had little realistic choice but to cave in on money, citizens’ rights and the Irish border if it wanted to get to phase two talks on trade. “It is dressed up as a negotiation, but it’s really been a story of the British taking time to realise that they have got to accept what the EU demands of them,” he said. “The EU is intelligent enough not to pursue this in a humiliating way, but the truth is that we have to accept.” [...]

Meanwhile, the prime minister prepared the ground among her Brexit hardliners in government, first at a subcommittee of the cabinet last week and then a meeting of the full cabinet on Monday. If the final loose ends can be tied up by Robbins and Weyand on Ireland and the role of the European court of justice (ECJ) in protecting citizens’ rights, May is expected to present Britain’s final offer in person to the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, next Monday. [...]

“The truth is if you want to join, you join on their terms. You can quibble about the details, but the broad lines are decided by the EU and dressed up as a negotiation. Similarly, when you leave the EU, once you declare your red lines, the ECJ and free movement being two important ones, then the range of opportunities for the future relationship are very limited.”

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