Barnier is said to have "reprimanded" Dominic Raab over the 27 letters sent to the other EU governments pleading with them to engage in "side deals" on aviation and road transport in an effort to keep goods flowing after Brexit (HERE). This seems calculated to annoy Barnier and is bound to create ill feeling. Grayling, our utterly useless Transport Secretary, authorised the letters presumably after road hauliers told him they wouldn't be able to drive in the EU with a British HGV or Operator's license, something he only realise a few weeks ago (HERE).
Barnier told Raab that without an agreement there can be no trust. And he might have added that going behind his back is not going to help.
I don't know why Raab and Grayling didn't understand this. Hilary Benn asked about it in Brussels on 3rd September (HERE):
HB: One very final quick question from me: Michel, you said if there is no deal there will be no further discussions between us. Can I just check that does not mean that if we are trying to sort out in the event of no deal—aviation, medicines, driving licences—that there would be no discussion because, if you read the papers that Dominic Raab has published about preparing for no deal, as you will have noticed a lot of it assumes that there would be co-operation between us to sort out matters,
MB: Hilary, we want to settle all these matters in agreement. That is why we are negotiating. Now if there is a no deal there is no more discussion. There is no more negotiation. It is over and each side will take its own unilateral contingency measures, and we will take them in such areas as aviation, but this does not mean minideals in the case of a no deal.
But the reporters in The Guardian seem to have some difficulty in understanding the process of Brexit anyway. This is taken from their report:
"Officials believe Barnier has softened his public position in the last few days. Last week, Barnier reportedly told a delegation of British MPs from the Brexit select committee that he believed Chequers was “dead”, because it would require the EU to compromise over fundamental principles on the operation of the single market.
"On Tuesday, however, Barnier said it was realistic to believe that a deal could be agreed within the next two months. “If we are realistic, I want to reach an agreement on the first stage of the negotiation, which is the Brexit treaty, within six or eight weeks,” he said".
On the one hand they say Barnier told the Select Committee that Chequers was "dead" but then followed it a few days later with reported comments about a deal being agreed within six to eight weeks. They don't seem to appreciate Barnier was talking about two different things! He has not "softened" his position at all. He was talking firstly about the future relationship (the Chequers plan which if not dead is critically injured) and then the first stage of the negotiation (the Withdrawal Agreement which is 80% complete). Two separate issues. They may be linked together but it will be a tenuous one and won't be legally binding anyway.
