My Secret Brexit Diary - Michel Barnier

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my scheduled meeting later this afternoon with Jean-Claude Juncker’s Head of Cabinet, Martin Selmayr. It’s clear what is required here: we must be as proactive as possible, otherwise the structure and personnel of my team will end up being imposed ‘from above’.

      First priority: to appoint my deputy. We draw up a shortlist, at the top of which is a senior European civil servant of German nationality, well known and well respected, a former adviser to Pascal Lamy, and with whom I worked a great deal during my first term as a Commissioner from 1999 to 2004: Sabine Weyand. Sabine has recently been appointed Deputy Director-General for Trade.

      At 5.30pm I head up to ‘the thirteenth’, the presidential floor of the Berlaymont building, to meet with Martin Selmayr. With me I have a few initial slides outlining the major issues of the negotiations, the mandate of the task force and its structure. The meeting is brisk and straightforward. I make a point of mentioning Sabine’s name in connection with the post of deputy. Mr Selmayr’s response is unhesitating: ‘Good thinking. But she won’t be coming. She’s too useful where she is.’

      In spite of this refusal, I call Sabine in the evening and she tells me that, naturally, she is attracted by the unusual prospect of the Brexit assignment. I inform her of Martin Selmayr’s reservations and ask her to make good use of her network. I will have Mr Selmayr on the line several times over the next few days, and finally, at the beginning of September, he will agree to let me recruit this brilliant woman, as adept politically as she is technically.

      Thus a trio is swiftly formed at the head of my team. I will have alongside me these two strong women, not at all alike, with different but complementary personalities and convictions, both of whom command great respect. Sabine will be my deputy and Stéphanie will be our Director of Strategy, in charge of legal and budgetary affairs and relations with other institutions and with the European Parliament. The immediate signal sent both within and outside the Commission will be that a professional and highly competent team is in place here.

      It’s all happening!

      The day after I took office, Theresa May speaks at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, unveiling some of her strategy and offering pledges to the most hard-line Brexit supporters.

      As far as the EU is concerned, it would allow the integrity of the internal market and the four fundamental freedoms associated with it to be respected, while maintaining trade relations and close cooperation in certain sectors.

      But let’s not be naive: this negotiation cannot end up providing à la carte access to the internal market without any of the associated obligations, particularly in terms of the free movement of persons. On this we shall be vigilant!

      Finally, the Prime Minister makes an important announcement: she clarifies that the UK will activate Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon before the end of March 2017, thereby triggering the two-year process of withdrawal of a member state from the European Union: ‘There was a good reason why I said – immediately after the referendum – that we should not invoke Article 50 before the end of this year. That decision means we have the time to develop our negotiating strategy.’

      As the President of the European Council Donald Tusk remarks in the aftermath of May’s speech, this announcement does indeed bring ‘welcome clarity on the start of Brexit talks’.

      Task Force 50 is open for business.*

      For the moment, we are a small team.

      Sabine Weyand, Stéphanie Riso and I have each chosen an assistant to help us with all the preparation, organization and planning.

      Of course, the indispensable Isabelle Misrachi will join us to strengthen our team. She has been with me since 1999, when I became European Commissioner for Regional Policy. Alternately assistant and head of my secretariat, she has amply proved her extraordinary tenacity, determination and organizational skills.

      Georg Riekeles will be in charge of relations with the twenty-seven EU countries and the European Parliament, in his capacity as diplomatic adviser. Georg and I have been working together for almost fifteen years. In 2004 he was an international student at Sciences Po in Paris, and approached me at the end of a conference on European defence. He joined my team at the Quai d’Orsay as a young policy officer. He is Norwegian, and therefore a native of a country that is not a member of the EU. I have full confidence in him: ever creative and curious about people and ideas, this Nordic man, married to a Mediterranean, brings a different perspective and knows the UK well, having studied there as well as in Paris.

      Finally, the Director-General of Human Resources, Irene Souka, recommended that I choose a young Belgian woman, Claire Saelens, as my secretary; we immediately struck up a good rapport.

      Thanks to the efficiency of the technical services team, by pushing some parts of the Directorate-General for Communication and the Secretariat-General down the corridor, and in some cases even into a different building – for which I was truly sorry – we have come to occupy half of the fifth floor of the Berlaymont building, headquarters of the European Commission.

      The open-plan office, with movable partitions, makes for a rather noisy environment. My office is the standard size of a general manager’s office. Straight away, I bring in a large oval glass table, which is to be my main tool for the upcoming negotiations. And above all, I hang on the wall a number of photos that are important to me and that immediately create a more familiar atmosphere.

      A portrait of Nelson Mandela, on the occasion of our brief meeting on the tenth anniversary of the end of apartheid. And a photograph of the Polish Pope John Paul II, receiving myself, together with Jean-Claude Killy, for a private audience.

      Above my head, I place a poster that was given to me long ago by one of the leaders of Poland’s Solidarity (Solidarność) movement, Bronisław Geremek. To me this poster is symbolic of the whole European project, an enterprise of reclaimed freedom and reunification.

      In this office I bring together for the first time our small team, which is set to expand very quickly. We need to recruit experts to cover every one of the numerous and complex objects of negotiation. Stéphanie, Sabine and I draw up an initial organization chart. For the Commission, this will be both a unique and a complex negotiation. Many are keen to be a part of it, and I am sure we will have no difficulty in putting together the best possible team.

      However, from the outset I point out – and will repeat to every new team member – that we must be ‘amicable pros’. Making sure we are professional and competent is the least we can do to honour such a historic and serious task. But being amicable is also key to increasing our collective efficiency: amicable within the team, amicable with the other Commission

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