All the times EU has said 'no' to Theresa May's Chequers Brexit trade plan

Has Theresa May finally got the message?

Most people following Brexit now seem to have got the message that the prime minister’s Chequers proposals for trade after Brexit are dead – though Theresa May herself seems to be staving off reality for now.

But this week’s Salzburg summit was far from the first time the contents of the Chequers plan had been rubbished by the EU. In fact, they’ve repeatedly said no to it for quite some time.

Various dates before the publication of Chequers

Even before Chequers was published, the EU repeatedly ruled out accepting the policies that would eventually find their way into the prime minister’s plan.

The two key planks of Chequers are a “common rulebook” of regulations, where the UK would follow some parts of the single market, but not others; and a customs system where the UK would collect tariffs on the EU’s behalf.

But by the time Chequers was published on the 12 July, the EU had repeatedly rejected its principles several times based on media reports about what it might contain.

“We can’t possible imagine a situation in which we would accept cherry-picking. We are responsible for guaranteeing the integrity of the single market,” EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier told told a press conference on 27 February, five months before the white paper came into being, but after press reports about what it might contain.

A day before, Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, had a similar message: “If the media reports are correct I’m afraid that the UK position today is based on pure illusion. It looks like the cake philosophy is still alive,” referring to the “have your cake and eat it” approach advocated by then foreign secretary Boris Johnson.

These were far from the first interventions on the subject – the EU has always said the UK can either have a loose agreement like Canada, or a close agreement like Norway, but not pick the best bits from both.

When all this was pointed out British officials responded that this was simply the EU’s opening position – the implication being that it might change. At no point was an account given of how the UK would bring about that change, however.

12 July

The Chequers plan, aka “The future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union” white paper is finally published.

20 July

Michel Barnier welcomed the publication of the proposals and said he would examine them. A week later he took to the podium in Brussels with a series of criticism, which he phrased as questions to the UK.

The EU’s chief negotiator did not explicitly reject the plan, but he punched so many holes in its different aspects that it was difficult for any observer to see how it would survive.

Mr Barnier suggested the PM’s proposal on customs might not even be “legally feasible”. He added that there would be “practical problems” determining which tariff to apply to goods and that there was a “major risk of fraud”.

On the single market for goods, he said such a plan might give the UK a “significant competitive advantage” against the EU’s own interests, and that it would be unfair to European consumers to exempt certain goods from safety standards.

Overall, he was scathing, telling reporters in Brussels: “There’s no justification for us to create additional burdens on business just because the UK wants to leave.”

26 July

After about a week, no serious public reply to Mr Barnier’s questions came. It seems he received none that satisfied him in private either: where he had been careful not to reject outright before, now he pulled far fewer punches.

“The EU cannot and the EU will not delegate the application of its customs policy, of its rules, VAT and excise duty collections to a non-member who would not be subject to the EU’s governance structures,” Mr Barnier said after meeting Brexit secretary Dominic Raab in Brussels – essentially putting a line through the PM’s customs proposals.

On the single market for goods proposal, he restated that the single market and its four freedoms were indivisible and could not be cherry-picked.

2 September

In an interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Mr Barnier said he was strongly opposed to Theresa May’s plan to split the single market.

“The British have a choice,” he said. “They could stay in the single market, like Norway, which is also not a member of the EU, but they would then have to accept all the regulations and make contributions to European solidarity.

“But if we let the British cherry-pick which of our regulations to follow, that would have serious consequences: all sorts of other third countries could insist that we offer them the same deal.

“That would be the end of the single market and the European project. I am often accused of being dogmatic in the UK, but the truth is I'm only protecting our fundamental interests.”

4 September

Mr Barnier appeared before a committee of MPs in Westminster, where he was asked whether he thought the Chequers plan was “dead in the water” or not.

Though he said he liked various uncontroversial aspects of the white paper, he said the proposal for trade “does not seem workable to us, basically” and that there were “two issues that we cannot accept”. These were, again, the single market for goods, and the customs proposal – the main planks of Chequers.

12 September

In his annual state of the union speech in Strasbourg last week, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said parts of the single market could “certainly not” be jettisoned for countries outside the bloc.

“We respect the British decision to leave our union, even though we continue to regret it deeply,” he said

“But we also ask the British government to understand that someone who leaves the union cannot be in the same privileged position as a member state.

“If you leave the union, you are of course no longer part of our single market, and certainly not only in the parts of it you choose.”

20 September

At the start of the Salzburg summit Donald Tusk said that the Chequers plans for trade needed to be “reworked and further negotiated”.

“Brexit negotiations are entering their decisive phase. Various scenarios are still possible today, but I would like to stress that some of Prime Minister May’s proposals from Chequers indicate a positive evolution in the UK’s approach as well as a will to minimise the negative effects of Brexit,” Mr Tusk told reporters at the summit.

“By this, I mean, among other things the readiness to cooperate closely in areas such as security and foreign policy. On other issues such as the Irish question or the framework for economic cooperation, the UK’s proposals will need to be reworked and further negotiated.”

21 September

Downing Street had been billing the Salzburg summit as EU national leaders’ first opportunity to discuss Chequers face-to-face. Would there be a change in position?

Following a meeting of those leaders and a discussion about the Chequers plan, the European Council president took to the podium again. His message was very similar, but this time he was speaking on behalf of the 27.

“Everybody shared the view that while there are positive elements in the Chequers proposal, the suggested element for economic cooperation will not work, not least because it risks undermining the single market,” Mr Tusk said, giving his account of the Council’s working lunch discussion.

Speaking directly after Mr Tusk, the prime minister seemed upset and was seen visibly shaking. She did not accept that the proposal had been rejected and described the president’s comments as a “negotiating tactic”. But in private, has she finally got the message?