When trade talks with the United Kingdom hit an impasse on December 9, a European Union official summed up the mood in Brussels in a memo: "The British ... are trying to deceive us, we must not give in."
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen had just met in the Berlinale building, the seat of the EU's executive body in Brussels, and failed to resolve the deadlock over fisheries policy and competitiveness.
Although those and many other differences were resolved by yesterday's $900 billion trade deal, the pattern of mutual mistrust highlighted by the memo seen by Reuters will remain. The British agency writes that the mistrust is likely to taint future relations as the UK and EU deal with huge unfinished business, from trade in services to cooperation on crime and security.
Trust is not gained overnight
"Unfortunately, trust is something that doesn't come overnight," a senior diplomat in Brussels told Reuters.
The analysis points out that the economic consequences of Britain's bitter break with its historic European allies will be painfully obvious - but that the geostrategic implications are likely to be even greater.
The decision of one of Europe's main military and economic powers to reject the EU as the bloc tries to become a coherent counterweight to Russian and Chinese assertiveness will diminish Europe's transalternative community with the US and Canada, Reuters estimates.
Britain formally left the EU last January, 47 years after it joined and three-and-a-half years after the Brexit referendum, but then entered a transition period during which trade and travel rules were frozen until the end of 2020.
EU officials and diplomats have described negotiations to reach a trade deal by January 1, 2021 as an exhausting game of bluffing and "arm-twisting", the British agency reported.
On the EU side, the 27 member states remained united under the leadership of chief negotiator, Frenchman Michel Barnier, a staunch defender of their single market of 450 million consumers.
The British side is harder to gauge because it has sometimes sought to exploit differences between member states and has often been swayed by the whims of domestic politics, EU officials said.
Reuters writes that the most widely circulated papers in Britain and Brexit ideologues in Johnson's government hailed his firm stance towards Brussels regarding competition rules and the access of EU fishing vessels to British waters as a much-needed confirmation of sovereignty.
Bad match
Britain has always been hesitant about the project of unifying and rebuilding Europe from the ashes of World War II.
It acceded belatedly in 1973, but its economic liberalism set it back from much of continental Europe, and it never adopted the single euro currency or entered the Schengen zone.
"British Euroscepticism has been fueled for decades in much of its press, whose journalists, including Johnson, who was a correspondent for the Daily Telegraph and Brussels from 1989-1994, denounced the federalist ambitions of the "Eurocarat" and mocked the EU's regulatory zeal," it is stated in Reuters analysis. In one column, Johnson joked about rules that he said forbid recycling tea bags or banning children under the age of eight from blowing up balloons.
Many Brexiteers believed that the UK should break away from the EU's stagnant economies and compete with a project they believe is doomed. However, Britain's volatile relationship with the EU is controversial at home as well.
Reuters reminds that Margaret Thatcher's aggression against Brussels led to a coup in the Conservative Party that ended her premiership in 1990. The gamble of one of her successors, David Cameron, with the 2016 Brexit referendum led to his departure, and the result 52 to 48 divided British society.
On the other side of the Channel, according to Reuters, many have long thought that Britain is simply not a compatible partner.
“French war hero Charles de Gaulle twice vetoed the country's attempts to join the then-European Economic Community in the 1960s. Five decades later, President Emmanuel Macron insisted on Britain's quick exit after the referendum, worried that Eurosceptic sentiment could permeate the continent," the agency reminds.
Shock tactics
Britain took its boldest step in trade negotiations last summer, when the inner circle around Johnson, unable to find a way out of the deadlock, decided to provoke a crisis.
As a source close to the group told Reuters, they decided to "put the gun on the table" by drafting legislation that would nullify parts of the withdrawal agreement the UK had already signed with the EU.
Several British officials said the single market bill was a shock tactic to counter what they interpreted as EU efforts to prevent Britain from regaining "sovereignty" ahead of its final exit from the bloc on January 31.
But the move only strengthened Brussels' resolve to ensure it can implement the trade deal.
Von der Leyen was clear: "Trust is good, but the law is better... And, most importantly, in light of recent experience, a strong governance system is essential to ensure that what is agreed is actually done." . Among the game's strategists were some who felt Britain had been humiliated in earlier negotiations and were determined not to let it happen again, according to Reuters sources.
The British tabloid press was outraged in 2019 when Johnson's predecessor, Theresa May - another conservative prime minister who fell victim to the fight over Europe - had to sit for hours outside the summit meeting room while, as described by the Sun newspaper, "EU leaders devoured shrimp and duck".
Piece of cake
At the Salzburg summit a year earlier, chairman Donald Tusk posted a photo on Instagram of himself standing with May at a dessert table, with the caption: “A piece of cake, maybe? Sorry, no cherries.”
This jab was related to Theresa May's plan for the breakup, which the EU publicly criticized as picking the best fruits, i.e. membership benefits, and Johnson's belief that Britain could do just that, "to have its cake and eat it too". "The cake story certainly had an impact," said one British source. Some interpreted it as distasteful, because May has diabetes.
A source involved in the divorce negotiations last year said the delegations often sat on opposite sides of the room during breaks, staring at each other in silence.
The angst over Britain's single market law set the tone for the talks as the deadline approached, according to Reuters.
There was a spat on Twitter between British negotiator David Frost and the usually calm Barnier. Both sides were entrenched in their positions on fishing rights, how to resolve future disputes and "fair market competition" rules that guarantee fair competition, including state aid to companies.
Britain announced in October that it was ending negotiations entirely. But a week later, they resumed, after Brussels admitted that both sides had to compromise. London hailed the signal as proof that its strategy had worked.
Heaven and earth
At Johnson's dinner on December 9 with von der Leyen and the two chief negotiators - where, ironically, turbot, a fish native to British waters, was also served - the stark contrast between the two sides was visible.
On one side stood the elegantly dressed head of the Commission, a German woman, and the Commission's French negotiator, and on the other stood Johnson in an ill-fitting suit, with disheveled hair, and his negotiator with his tie too short.
One British source said Johnson came in with proposals and was "genuinely trying to find a way to a solution" but hit a wall. Another source close to the negotiations said that Johnson's affability did not charm the more formal von der Leyen.
"I don't think either of them would have invited the other to dinner otherwise," said the source. "The two of them are like heaven and earth."
An EU report sent after the dinner said London appeared to be trying to extract concessions by announcing it was ready to leave the bloc on January XNUMX without a deal.
It took two more weeks of negotiations, lasting late into the night and over the weekend, to reach an agreement.
One EU diplomat close to the negotiations said the past four and a half years had been a "tiring melodrama" that had eroded goodwill and sapped enthusiasm for any future negotiations.
"The divorce was supposed to be amicable. But our estranged spouse flew into a rage and it didn't go very smoothly,” he said. "One way or another, we will still be bound. Without love.”
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