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London - Brexit negotiators will get down to the technical details of the divorce on Tuesday, tackling issues from nuclear cooperation to residency rights, as Prime Minister Theresa May seeks to silence public sparring among her ministers.
UK Brexit Secretary David Davis and EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier are leaving their teams to hash out the details - the British team has 98 officials while the EU squad is 45 - and Davis is back in London.
Davis will attend a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday where May will tell ministers to stop leaking negative stories about each other to the press in a bid to reassert her authority, which has been damaged by last month’s election result.
Backstabbing among ministers, much of it targeting Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond, has overshadowed the second round of talks as May’s potential successors take advantage of her weakened position. Davis is seen as a possible replacement for May, while Hammond has come under attack for his efforts to maintain close ties with Europe after Brexit - in line with what UK businesses want.
With businesses warning that they will relocate if they don’t have more clarity by the end of the year, Davis is now agreeing with Barnier that there’s a rush to reach swift agreement on the exit terms so that talks can move on to trade.
The EU has made much of the early running by forging a common position on the issues up for debate as well as forcing the UK into its schedule of discussing divorce issues such as citizens’ rights and financial obligations before moving on to a future trade arrangement.
Those areas were discussed in detail on Monday and are scheduled to continue on Tuesday alongside nuclear energy cooperation, what to do about UK and EU goods placed on the market before Brexit day, and administrative procedures.
“Both sides have today got round the table and started the serious business of working through our positions in a number of areas,” a spokesman for Davis’s Department for Exiting the EU said in an emailed statement at the conclusion of Monday’s discussions.
“We recognize that this will be a complicated and technical process and we look forward to coming back tomorrow to make progress on the work we have begun today.”
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