FILE PHOTO – British Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker take part in a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium December 13, 2018. REUTERS/Yves Herman
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Theresa May remonstrated with Jean-Claude Juncker at a Brussels summit on Friday and the EU chief executive seemed anxious to placate the British prime minister whose Brexit demands he had called “nebulous” the night before.
Under huge pressure at home as British media described her largely unsuccessful plea for favour from EU leaders as a humiliation, May appeared anxious to make a point to Juncker before a new session in the morning.
What they said was not audible but official video of their exchange as other leaders took their seats showed May repeating herself while the former Luxembourg premier held her by the arm, shook his head and raised with his palm in an apparent effort to calm her down before the Dutch prime arrived to interrupt them.
The previous evening, Juncker told a news conference that Mays pitch to the summit for help on Brexit was “nebulous” and “vague”. Diplomats said other leaders made similar complaints directly to the beleaguered British leader during the talks.
Asked what she had said to Juncker, a British government source said only: “Im sure they had plenty to discuss.”
EU diplomats said May had on Thursday evening appealed for some legally binding amendments to the Brexit deal which she had agreed last month but seems unable to get through parliament.
But the other 27 leaders had stood firm on a refusal to do anything that might water down the so-called “backstop” designed to avoid a disruptive “hard border” for Northern Ireland. They issued a statement stressing that they hope it would not be used, or if it were for only a very short time.
But that has failed to satisfy critics of Mays plan, who say it opens the risk of Britain being bound into EU customs and other regulations indefinitely, unless the two sides can agree on another way to keep their borders almost totally open.
Reporting by Alastair Macdonald and Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Angus MacSwan
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