Britain and E.U. Are Said to Be Miles Apart on ‘Brexit’ Talks
The paper reported that Mrs. May said at one point, "Let’s make Brexit a success." Mr. Juncker was said to have replied, "Brexit cannot be a success." Mrs. May was said to have called for working on a trade deal simultaneously with talks on Britain’s exit, arguing
that since Britain is already a member and merely wants to leave, a trade deal should be much easier to complete.
By STEVEN ERLANGERMAY 1, 2017
LONDON — No one expects negotiations over Britain’s exit from the European Union to go smoothly over the next two years, but a German newspaper’s account of a dinner last Wednesday between the British prime minister, Theresa May, and senior European Union officials suggests
that round one, at least, was particularly discordant.
BBC acknowledged that As the prime minister and Jean-Claude Juncker made clear, this
was a constructive meeting ahead of the negotiations formally getting underway.
According to the German newspaper and some from Britain, like The Sunday Times of London, Mr. Juncker came away believing
that Mrs. May was not just in "a state of denial," but in "a different galaxy," as he was said to have reported in an early morning telephone call the next day to Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany.
On Sunday, the German newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, ran an article, clearly leaked by officials in the European Commission,
that described a considerable gulf between Mrs. May, who called for a snap election on June 8, and Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the commission, as well as the bloc’s chief negotiator on Britain’s exit, Michel Barnier.
