How the EU set up the UK trade talks to fail

With a “UK Task Force” like this, were the EU ever serious about a UK trade deal?

© EU Commission

If we want our freedom, we will have to continue to fight for it

Above is a photo of the 62 EU people who work for the ‘Task Force for Relations with the United Kingdom' (UKTF). This new EU Task Force was established on 16 November 2019, as part of the European Commission's Secretariat-General.

It replaces the “Task Force for the Preparation and Conduct of the Negotiations with the United Kingdom under Article 50 TEU”, which was created on 1 October 2016 to lead withdrawal negotiations.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

Is the EU’s “Task Force” for UK trade negotiations remotely up to the job?

  • Two-thirds of the EU’s Task Force has no responsibility for trade
  • The chain of command is chaotic
  • There is no focus at all on the number one issue – a trade deal between the EU and the UK

The Boss and the Deputy Boss

Michel Barnier is once again Head of the new Task Force, and the Deputy Head is Clara Martinez Alberola. Most British people know Monsieur Barnier for his patronising comments about the UK during the three years of the disastrous “Withdrawal Agreement” negotiations. (“Ze clock eez teecking, teeck-tock, teeck-tock.”)

Barnier’s Deputy is Ms Martinez Alberola. She’s Spanish and has spent her professional career working for the EU machine. We first came across her in 2012 when she became adviser to Jose Manuel Barroso, then President of the European Commission. She gained even more prominence when she subsequently became Head of Cabinet for Jean-Claude Juncker, the most recent President of the European Commission before Ursula von der Leyen.

© EU Commission

If you wanted to negotiate a trade deal with the UK, is this how you would structure things?

Below we show the extraordinary management structure of the new ‘Task Force for Relations with the United Kingdom' (UKTF).

© EU Commission - Click to enlarge

There are six main groupings. For some reason it requires two highly-paid EU bureaucrats to sit between the heads of these main groupings and the boss, Michel Barnier. Monsieur Barnier also has two Prinicpal Advisers and an Adviser who report directly to him, bypassing both his Deputy and the Head of Strategy and Overall Coordination.

Only two out of six main groups of the EU Task Force have anything to do with trade

Almost unbelievably, two-thirds of the EU’s effort in negotiating a trade deal with the UK is devoted to areas which have nothing to do with trade or economics. Here are the main groupings:-

  1. Coordination, planning and administrative support
  2. Legal and inter-institutional affairs
  3. Citizens, Union programmes and Ireland/Northern Ireland
  4. Economic Affairs I
  5. Economic Affairs II
  6. Security, External relations, Climate and Energy

Observations

Looking at the the way the EU has structured its team to negotiate a trade deal with the United Kingdom, does anyone seriously wonder why the EU has been so incompetent at negotiating trade deals around the world for the last sixty years?

We wonder whether any ordinary voters and taxpayers in the EU27 countries know just how shambolically the EU Commission has organised its negotiating team for the continuation of trade between the UK and their countries?

The EU (and the May Government) wasted years on the Withdrawal Agreement. That’s now history. The focus now should be 100% on the continuation of trading arrangements between the EU27 and the UK.

Overturning Brexit? The EU and the UK Establishment haven’t yet given up hope of doing this

Ever since the UK formally exited the EU on 31 January 2020, the EU and the UK’s Remoaner-Rejoiners have been arguing that the chances of meeting the timetable for the UK to leave the Transition Period on 31 December 2020 were either unlikely, impossible, or ‘irresponsible’.

Since the Coronavirus, the calls to “extend” the Transition Period beyond the end of this year have been turning into a clamour. Even some popular pro-Brexit commentators such as Ms Isabel Oakeshott have suggested that a full Brexit should be delayed.

Our answer is simple.
No. No. No.

This battle has so far consumed four years of our lives. Members of our team would like to go back to our businesses and to a ‘normal life’ where we are not working seven days a week.

Boris Johnson put 31 December 2020 into law, as the date when the UK will exit the “Transition Period” of colony status to the EU. We cannot abide one second more. We must conclude this chapter in our lives and move on to the joys of being a truly independent and outward-looking nation once again.

Please help us to continue our fight for free speech and a free country. We only survive now on public donations, as our own resources are exhausted. If you would like us to battle on and see our country become free, we ask you to donate whatever you can afford now.

Quick and secure links are below. Thank you so much and you will receive a personal thank you email from a team member.

[ Sources: EU Commission ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Tues 14 Apr 2020

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