Forget the noise about ‘Leavers’ and ‘Remainiacs’: There are reasons for hope as EU negotiations draw near
In just just a few days the UK will embark on one of the longest multilateral negotiations in its history as the Prime Minister invokes Article 50 and the process of withdrawal from the EU begins in earnest.
To read the headlines or remain glued to Twitter (an increasingly bad idea for my blood pressure), you would think we are heading towards years and years of angry debate where the terms of this ‘divorce’ just get worse and worse.
Of course before we even start formal negotiations, and I tend to think the UK government will not want to rush this at all – journalists need something to write about ‘Leavers’ and ‘Remainiacs’ need something to plot about.
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But let’s remember the commentariat is thankfully not in the negotiation room, and will never be in the negotiation room and their plotting is purely that. It is not substantial and really not helpful.
Earlier this month I was delighted to host the EPP MEPs who are members of the Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee on their visit to London. Remember the EPP? It is the European People’s Party in the European Parliament – the caucus that the Tories used to be a part of until 2009. It is the grouping that Angela Merkel’s CDU remains a part of. As we start this negotiation, it is a good place to start.
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For me, chairing an exchange of views with the MEPs from Germany, Poland, Ireland, Greece, the Netherlands, Hungary and Sweden and British businesses and inward investors, the most important thing was to maintain a positive mood in the room.
Anytime the conversation veered towards headlines and personalities I forcibly moved the conversation back to the substantive issues like the role of the City as the Europe’s capital market.
More than that, when the conversation with the MEPs and the business folks got tense – and it did – I cracked a joke that I hoped would not be ‘lost in translation’, and we rapidly moved on.
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We landed in a place where all the MEPs were talking about ensuring a win:win from the negotiations all round. Of course maintaining this posture will be hard to do but so far I think there are some really good signs. The PM is being methodical in her approach towards Brexit and actually so is chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier.
The language from Brexit secretary David Davis and chancellor Philip Hammond is increasingly similar on the key issues and is about achieving that win:win. Business is more relaxed that the government speaks in one place and in one way. I also noted that the chancellor and the Bank governor hosted the MEPs too.
The key thing throughout this process is to keep talking and that we continue to want to break bread with each other time and time again. We can. We must.