An EU summit shows unity in the face of Brexit

“BRITAIN has had the same foreign policy objective for at least the last 500 years: to create a disunited Europe.” Like many lines delivered by Sir Humphrey, the roguish civil servant in “Yes Minister”, a British television comedy from the 1980s, this carried the ring of truth. But on April 29th it became clear that the current British government has achieved the opposite. One month after Theresa May, the prime minister, triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty, notifying the European Union of Britain’s intention to leave, the club’s 27 other leaders met in Brussels to approve a set of negotiating guidelines for the two-year Brexit talks to come. They rubber-stamped the text within minutes of sitting down, and applauded themselves for doing so. Donald Tusk, who chaired the summit as president of the European Council, said it had been far easier to keep unity among “the 27” (as they have come to be called) than he had expected.

The Europeans have spent the ten months since Britain’s referendum in meticulous preparation. But where gung-ho Brexiteers see a “liberation” (in the words of Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary), for the EU’s other members Brexit is strictly an exercise in damage control. They want to clarify and guarantee the rights of their citizens in Britain, and vice versa; ensure that Britain meets its outstanding financial commitments to the EU (the so-called “Brexit bill”); avoid creating a hard border between Britain and Ireland; and strike a trade deal that does not grant Britain overly generous access to the EU single market. All the signs point to a difficult negotiation.

In recent months Mrs May had appeared to soften on some treacherous issues, such as the terms of transitional arrangements that will govern the period between Brexit and the subsequent Britain-EU trade deal. But this week the atmosphere started to sour again. Last week Jean-Claude Juncker, the commission president, visited Mrs May in London, and was dismayed to find the prime minister still harbouring the belief that both divorce and trade could be fully worked out by Brexit day. The following morning Angela Merkel, having been debriefed by Mr Juncker, told the German parliament that some in Britain were operating under "illusions"; uncharacteristically tough language for a temperate chancellor.

The Europeans also fear that the British government has yet to face up to the tremendous complexities of Brexit. "I sometimes have the impression that our British friends underestimate the technical difficulties we have to face," said Mr Juncker after the summit. A particular worry is the discussion over citizens’ rights, which must cover everything from employment, eligibility for benefits, the conditions for permanent residence, the status of non-EU spouses, university tuition fees, pension transferability and much more—as well as a legal mechanism to guarantee whatever the two sides agree (which could involve preserving the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, a bitter pill for Brexiteers to swallow). Nothing irritates Eurocrats more than Britain’s apparent belief that all this can be handled with a flimsy political statement.

Britain will be keen to move on to the discussion of a post-Brexit settlement as soon as possible. The EU’s guidelines say this can happen once “sufficient progress” has been made on the divorce issues. This is a nebulous phrase that will be parsed endlessly in the coming months. Cracks may emerge in the EU’s unity; countries like the Netherlands, which has extensive trade links with Britain, fear that the Brexit process might get bogged down early on. But if phase one proceeds smoothly, the 27 hope to sign off on its terms at a European summit in October. That would leave roughly a year to sketch out a framework for a trade deal, given that four to five months may be needed for parliamentary ratification at the end of the two-year Article 50 process.

In the end, contra Sir Humphrey, the unity in evidence at today’s summit will serve the interests of both sides. As Mr Juncker emphasised at the summit, a divided EU would not be in a position to sign any agreement at all. That would be an unhappy outcome for everyone. But, as the Europeans never tire of insisting, it would be more of a problem for Britain than for the rest of the club it has elected to leave.