This programme contains
some strong language
THERESA MAY:After Brexit, Britain
wants to remain a good friend
and neighbour to Europe.
Yet I know there are some voices
calling for a punitive deal
that punishes Britain
and discourages other countries
from taking the same path.
And while I am confident that
this scenario need never arise,
while I am sure a positive agreement
can be reached, I am equally
clear that no deal for Britain is
better than a bad deal for Britain.
Eight months after the start
of the Brexit divorce talks,
Theresa May is coming to
Brussels today.
Over lunch, she will discuss the
last details, not of the Brexit
end deal, but an intermediate
deal on sufficient progress.
Guy Verhofstadt is the
BrexitCoordinator of the
European Parliament, and leads the
Parliament's Brexit Steering Group.
The EU is fairly confident
that there is a deal,
but then Verhofstadt's Chief of
Staff gets news from the assistant
of Michel Barnier,
the EU Chief Negotiator.
IN FRENCH:
WHISTLE
IN ENGLISH:
More phone calls follow,
and a possible explanation emerges.
One of the Brexit Steering Group
members leaked information
in a TV interview,
and Arlene Foster of the DUP,
May's small but crucial
coalition partner, didn't like what
she heard about the Irish border.
IN FRENCH:
IN ENGLISH:
LAUGHTER
PHONE RINGS
IN FRENCH:
IN ENGLISH:
The next morning, the team of EU
Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier
comes over to discuss the situation.
IN FRENCH:
The good mood doesn't last long,
because the Barnier team is
terrified of more leaks,
and of Verhofstadt causing trouble
over the issue of citizens' rights.
PHONE CHIMES
Guy? Richard.
Richard. Richard.
Oh, oui, oui, oui, oui.
Long days follow. With phone calls
and more phone calls,
everyone just waits for Theresa May
to return to Brussels,
or not to return.
Eventually, May does come back,
very early in the morning,
after changes were made to the
solution for the Irish border.
An extra paragraph was added to
what, from now on,
will be called
the Irish border backstop.
It will haunt the negotiations
until the very end.
IN ENGLISH:
IN FRENCH:
A year and a half after
the Brexit referendum,
and seven months after
the talks began,
the EU negotiators believe
they have reached a first deal.
But a couple of days later,
Theresa May questions
the financial settlement.
She says in a letter
to her Tory party members
that nothing is agreed
until everything is signed.
And David Davis,
her Brexit Secretary,
casts doubt on the
Irish border deal.
They have switched back
from negotiating with the EU
to talking to their own troops.
He said that again.
Here we go. Listen.
DAVID DAVIS:..is we want to
protect the peace process,
and we also want to protect Ireland
from the impact of Brexit for them.
So, this was a statement of intent
more than anything else.
It was much more a statement
of intent than it was
a legally enforceable thing.
The statement
of David Davis blows up
so much that he is forced to call
Verhofstadt to explain himself.
IN FRENCH:
IN ENGLISH:
The year ends, and a new year starts
with a skid course.
Guy Verhofstadt is preparing
for an off-road rally
in the spring, but maybe
also for the Brexit negotiations
that are about to enter a new phase.
After the deal on the three
divorce issues, talks will now
start on how the EU and the UK
see their future relationship.
The team of Barnier has
prepared slides with
options for the future relationship,
depending on how closely the UK
wants to remain tied to the EU.
IN FRENCH:
Michel Barnier is
a bit of a teacher.
But when Verhofstadt asks his team
to make a slide of their own to show
at a meeting that Barnier will also
attend, it proves to be not so easy.
IN ENGLISH:
In the end, Verhofstadt doesn't use
the slide that Bram made.
Barnier retains his title
as PowerPoint King.
Working for Verhofstadt
can be exhausting.
In March, Verhofstadt travels to
London for meetings with the
UK Brexit Secretary David Davis
and Prime Minister Theresa May.
He's a bit, I don't know.
CHANTING:
Guy Verhofstadt came to find out
for himself what kind of
future relationship the
UK Government wants with the EU.
But Downing Street does not allow
the meetings to be filmed.
The UK needs to make a choice.
To do so, Theresa May gathers
her ministers at her official
country residence called Chequers.
From there, she wants to publish
a White Paper with the British
plans for the future relationship
between the EU and the UK.
The disagreements in her Cabinet
are huge.
IN FRENCH:
The negotiations have become
a stand-off.
At stake are the very
foundations of the EU.
Theresa May negotiates as if
there are no founding principles.
The EU explains again and again that
their principles cannot be flouted.
IN ENGLISH:
In the end, the Chequers debate
over which plan to choose
for the future relationship
is won by Theresa May,
but her win comes at a cost.
Two of her most important ministers
resign -
David Davis, the Brexit Negotiator
and Boris Johnson,
the Foreign Secretary.
The EU doesn't like
May's Chequers plan either,
but the negotiators decide
not to criticise it too openly.
Another summer starts,
the summer of 2018.
Britain now has less than
eight months left before leaving
the EU with or without a deal.
Guy Verhofstadt takes time off to
pursue his passion and goes racing.
The summer doesn't bring any relief
for the negotiations.
On the contrary, a new Brexit
Secretary has replaced David Davis,
but his first encounters
with Barnier are difficult.
IN FRENCH:
In seven months,
the UK will leave the EU,
and the risk is growing that
they will do so without a deal.
The Irish border has become
the core problem.
The EU negotiators find nothing
in May's Chequers plan
that might resolve it in a way
that they find acceptable,
but it's the only plan on the table.
They feel trapped, and wonder
if they made a tactical mistake.
IN ENGLISH:
The tensions explode when
Theresa May goes to present
her Chequers plan to the
European Council in Salzburg.
The 27 EU Heads of State
and Government
give her a cold reception,
and Donald Tusk, the EU President,
adds insult to injury
with an Instagram.
It shows Theresa May at the
dessert buffet, with Tusk saying,
"A piece of cake, perhaps?
Sorry, no cherries."
I have treated the EU
with nothing but respect.
The UK expects the same.
A good relationship at the end of
this process depends on it.
At this late stage
in the negotiations,
it is not acceptable to simply
reject the other side's proposals
without a detailed explanation
and counterproposals.
IN FRENCH:
MUSIC: Dancing Queen,
by Abba
On the public stage of the
political theatre
that is now open war between Europe
and London.
# See that girl
# Watch that scene... #
Theresa May is pushed hard by
the Brexiteers in her Tory party
to make a strong stand
against the bullies from Brussels.
Thank you, thank you very much
for that warm welcome.
No-one wants a good deal
more than me.
But that has never meant
getting a deal at any cost.
Britain isn't afraid to leave
with no deal.
GUILLAUME:Oh, fuck off!
But we need...
CHEERING
EDEL:Speaks to the crowd.
MAY:It will be tough at first,
but the resilience
and ingenuity of the British people
would see us through.
War spirit!
Some people asked me to rule out
no deal.
And if I did that, I would
weaken our negotiating position,
and have to agree to whatever
the EU offers.
IN FRENCH:
THEY LAUGH
Michel Barnier keeps believing that
eventually there will be a deal,
because no deal would be
disastrous for the UK.
He goes back to the
negotiation table,
while Guy Verhofstadt travels
to Umbria to inspect the grapes
at his Umbrian villa.
THUNDER RUMBLES
Back in Brussels, Michel Barnier
is struggling once again
with the Irish border backstop.
Everybody wants the border between
Northern Ireland, part of the UK,
and the Irish Republic,
part of the EU, to stay open.
It's a guarantee for peace
on the Irish island.
But if the border stays open,
goods could enter the EU
which might not meet
European standards.
For the UK, that would be fine,
but for the EU, a disaster.
In the end, Barnier and the British
negotiators reach a compromise.
But when May sends her
Brexit Minister Raab to Brussels
for the final details,
the unexpected happens again.
IN ENGLISH:
One month later,
a new attempt is made at
finding an agreement on the
Irish border backstop.
Theresa May has said yes to the
plan, but now everyone is waiting
for the meeting of her Cabinet,
where her ministers also have to
agree. If they say yes,
the Brexit negotiations
may finally come to a conclusion.
In the end, the news only arrives
very late at night
while Bram, Edel and Yurun, the
Head of Media, have dinner together,
all ready to launch a first reaction
on social media.
THERESA MAY:
The deal that Barnier has reached
is 584 pages long.
His team needs boxes to carry in
copies the next morning.
The document legally settles
the three divorce issues,
including the Irish border backstop.
It also agrees on a transition
period in which the UK
and the EU will further negotiate
their future relationship.
The main stumbling block,
the Irish border backstop,
was solved by keeping
Northern Ireland
and the United Kingdom in a
temporary customs union with the EU.
THEY SPEAK FRENCH
IN ENGLISH:
Finally, there is a deal,
but it still has to be approved
by the UK Parliament,
and that is a problem.
There is huge resistance to
the Irish border backstop.
It's meant to be temporary,
but it has no end date,
and the UK cannot stop it
without the consent of the EU.
The second Brexit Secretary,
Dominic Raab, resigns in protest.
Under pressure, May delays
the vote in her Parliament,
and offers to go back to Brussels
to renegotiate.
The year ends, and 2019 starts.
The day on which the UK
will leave the EU
with or without a deal
is creeping closer.
The European Union has said no
to May's requests to renegotiate
the Irish border backstop.
So when she finally allows the
UK Parliament to vote on her deal,
she offers nothing new.
THERESA MAY:Mr Speaker,
this is the most significant vote
that any of us will ever be part of
in our political careers.
A vote against this deal is a vote
for nothing more than uncertainty,
division, and the very real risk
of no deal,
or no Brexit at all.
JOHN BERCOW:
INAUDIBLE
The voting system in the
UK Parliament is that MPs can
first shout yes or no, but then have
to leave the room
to go and vote for real.
IN DUTCH:
One more question in Dutch.
The deal Theresa May made
with the EU looks dead.
More than 100 of her own Tory MPs
voted against it.
May could try to find an alternative
majority with the
opposition parties, but she doesn't.
Instead, more votes follow,
on amendments that just express an
opinion and have no legal status.
The opposition parties
vote for one amendment.
May's government, Tories,
vote for another,
and Verhofstadt gets very irritated.
IN DUTCH:
IN ENGLISH:
But something, of course, does
happen. The clock keeps ticking.
In 64 days, the UK is leaving the EU
with or without a deal.
The time pressure is huge.
But maybe that's a conscious tactic.
There is suspicion that May
is using her lack of majority
to force the EU to agree to
a compromise on the backstop.
IN FRENCH:
A flurry of diplomatic activity
starts in which all the main players
in the Brexit negotiations come
to visit the European Parliament.
One week later,
Theresa May also comes to Brussels
with a huge entourage -
her main Brexit aide Olly Robins,
and around 50 other advisers.
Nothing is achieved,
the backstop cannot be changed,
but in London, May continues
to say that she's negotiating.
IN ENGLISH:
The patience in Europe
is wearing thing,
and filming becomes more difficult.
Late at night, Guy Verhofstadt is
summoned to the
European Parliament in Strasbourg
where Theresa May has arrived.
She wants to make a unilateral
declaration about how
she believes the Irish border
backstop should be interpreted.
But Verhofstadt is not impressed.
IN DUTCH:
Everyone is tired.
IN FRENCH:
IN ENGLISH:
While Verhofstadt is meeting May,
Guillaume receives her unilateral
declaration on his mobile.
May hopes that it will help her,
when tomorrow,
she re-submits her deal with the EU
to the UK Parliament
for a second vote, two months after
it was heavily rejected.
But Guillaume struggles
to understand what May's text
actually means.
The second vote in the UK Parliament
takes place the next day
at dinner time,
but Verhofstadt is hungry,
and wants to go to his restaurant.
IN FRENCH:
OK, we're off.
IN ENGLISH:
Theresa May's cliff edge strategy
to scare the UK Parliament with
a no deal, just a fortnight before
the departure date, did not work.
IN FRENCH:
CHEERING
One week later, an estimated million
people march through London
to ask for a second
referendum on Brexit.
6 million people sign
a petition for the UK
to remain in the European Union.
But for some in the
Brexit Steering group,
the Remainers are as big a problem
as the hard Brexiteers.
IN ENGLISH:
The divisions over Brexit
paralyse the UK Parliament,
so eight days before the
UK departure date,
Theresa May is forced to
come to Brussels to ask
the European Council of Heads
of State and Governments
for a delay of the
British departure.
May gets only a very short delay
of a couple of weeks,
instead of the three months
she asked for.
IN FRENCH:
On the scheduled UK departure date,
even the energetic Guy Verhofstadt
has had enough.
This afternoon, Theresa May will
have a third try at getting
her deal through Parliament.
But the Brexit Coordinator
doesn't even stay to watch any more.
IN DUTCH:
Theresa May also loses
her third vote.
She comes back to Brussels,
and is given a longer delay.
But according to EU President Tusk,
that might not even be the last one.
Meanwhile, Guy Verhofstadt
keeps having to receive
the Brexit Steering Group
in his office.
