AFP, Brussels :
British Prime Minister Theresa May holds a crunch meeting with European Union President Donald Tusk on Friday as hopes mount that she will offer compromises to secure a Brexit deal in December.
The talks, on the sidelines of a summit with ex-Soviet states in Brussels, come a week after Tusk gave May until the start of December to make “much more progress” on divorce terms in order to unlock trade negotiations.
After months of deadlock, European officials say they hope May will finally bring a new proposal on Britain’s exit bill after senior British ministers agreed earlier this week to improve the offer to a reported 40 billion euros.
The EU has demanded “sufficient progress” on the bill as well as the increasingly delicate issue of Northern Ireland and the rights of EU citizens, if it is to move onto the next phase of negotiations at a December 14-15 summit.
The Tusk meeting-for which no timing was immediately available-launches a frantic few days of Brexit diplomacy, during which May will also meet European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels on December 4.
Juncker indicated there was movement when he said on Thursday that “we are out of the woods” on the first phase, although he stressed that “the situation isn’t so that I can now definitively say that we have made enough progress”. “We have to see in the next few days,” he said.
EU member states have become increasingly impatient for Britain to meet its terms, and increasingly worried that May’s fragile Conservative government is unable to do so even if it wanted to.
Former Polish premier Tusk has warned that without progress by early December “at the latest” it will be too late to prepare guidelines for the summit for the move towards talks on a future trade deal, and on a post-Brexit transition period of around two years.
Tusk was “more optimistic” after meeting May a week ago on the sidelines of an EU summit in the Swedish port city of Gothenburg, but when it came to tabling a new offer “the earlier the better”, an EU source told AFP.
Britain is reportedly set to double its offer to settle its commitments to the EU budget from 20 billion to 40 billion, but the EU has so far said the true figure should be closer to 60 billion.
The British position on the bill was “evolving, they are laying the ground for domestic public opinion”, another EU official added.
“But if they want ‘sufficient progress on December 15 they can’t come with their offer on December 13 or 14. We have sent them a simple message: don’t wait until the last minute!”
