OVER 500 days beget passed since the Brexit referendum in June 2016,and fewer than 500 days are left until Britain is due to leave the European Union. Yet progress in the Brexit negotiations has been agonisingly slow. It is still uncertain whether next month’s European Council will agree even to originate the second phase of talks, on transitional arrangements and future trade relations. Frustrated Brexiteers are increasingly advocating walking absent with no deal at all.
One explanation for the delays is ill-preparedness and the slow process since the referendum of learning precisely what leaving such a complex organisation entails. But another is excessive rigidity and a premature closing down of options. This has often made the talks between David Davis, and the Brexit secretary,and Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, and needlessly confrontational.
The EU 27 are by no means blameless in this. Pretending that Brexit was a problem for Britain alone and that they had...
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Source: economist.com