Revealed: Michel Barnier and France’s Brexit stitch-up

The glaring difference between the EU and British negotiating goals has been brought into plain sight. In readiness for the upcoming Barnier-Frost negotiations, the French senate produced for the French government a set of requirements that Michel Barnier should work to in the negotiations. Those recommendations, which it published on 6 March, are extremely hardline. If Britain were to accept even a few of the key objectives, it could undermine Brexit. Given president Macron’s power in the European Council it is safe to say that most, if not all, of the recommendations will figure prominently in Barnier’s negotiating file. Frost will have to be on his guard to resist them when talks get underway.

Between 2017 and 2 March 2020 the French senate, through a series of ‘Brexit’ committees, held regular hearings –including with Michel Barnier – and drafted reports on the implications of Brexit for France and the EU. The lead commission was that on European Affairs, presided over by senator Jean Bizet.