The European Union’s unelected executive “pretty much dictated” parts of Theresa May’s Florence speech on Brexit, according to gloating bureaucrats in Brussels.
Senior sources told The Telegraph that May’s specific pledge to “honour commitments” to the EU budget — so that none of the bloc’s remaining member-states “will need to pay more or receive less” after Brexit — was a concession to Brussels mandarins.
“The Commission pretty much dictated the section on the financial settlement,” boasted one senior official. “The wording was exactly as the Commission wanted in order to convince member-states the UK was serious about breaking the deadlock.”
The wording of May’s promise to carry on swelling the EU’s coffers with billions of pounds in contributions after Brexit was reportedly pre-agreed before even the Prime Minister’s own Cabinet had a chance to discuss it.
Eurocrats crafted the pledge in conjunction with Oliver Robbins, the head civil servant at the Brexit Department who was recently revealed as an admirer of the Soviet Union, praising its Communist leaders as having built a state “that its people could be proud of … a technological giant at whom the world cowered in fear for half a century”.
Despite having seemingly agreed to “take dictation” from the EU when making her Florence speech, the bloc does not appear to have rewarded the Prime Minister for her compliance with a more conciliatory stance.
Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, said the concessions did still not represent “sufficient progress” on the EU’s various demands for it to agree to begin talks on Britain’s priorities, such as a trade deal.
France’s new president Emmanuel Macron, who Brexit campaign leader Nigel Farage predicted would act as a “puppet” for European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, has also insisted that May offer further “clarity” on the Brexit bill, EU nationals in Britain, and other issues before talks can progress.
Responding to the Florence speech, popular Conservative backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg said: “I think, if you are kind, you would say that the Prime Minister has made a generous offer and has now put it to the Europeans to respond.
“If you were unkind, you would say there’s been a series of concessions whilst the European Union has not made a single concession.”
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