Читать книгу My Secret Brexit Diary - Michel Barnier - Страница 19

Jean-Claude Juncker lands in Warsaw this afternoon to participate in the NATO summit and to sign a cooperation protocol between the EU and the North Atlantic Alliance alongside Donald Tusk, President of the European Council.

For the past ten months, at the Commission President’s request, I have been his special adviser on defence and security policy. These are issues that have always been of interest to me; indeed, in 2002 I chaired the European Convention’s Working Group on Defence. My group’s suggestions at the time for strengthening defence cooperation within the EU have now been incorporated into the Treaty. It’s all in there: a stronger role for the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, a European Defence Agency, the solidarity clause and the possibility for a group of countries to set out as ‘pathfinders’ by way of ‘structured cooperation’.

Aside from my interest in the subject, Jean-Claude Juncker’s proposal that I should work alongside him was rather touching since, only two years earlier at the EPP [European People’s Party] congress, we had competed as nominees to become the centre-right European election candidate and, ultimately, to stand for President of the European Commission. He won, with the decisive support of the CDU/CSU [German Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union parliamentary party]. I lost, but honourably so, having received a respectable 40 per cent of the votes cast.

So here I am on this sunny afternoon, on the plane to Warsaw with the President of the Commission. He has kindly invited me to join him tomorrow for a private meeting with President Obama and several members of his cabinet.

Suddenly, President Juncker turns to me, gestures to his young diplomatic adviser Richard Szostak not to listen, and says: ‘Michel, I have a sensitive matter to discuss with you. Would you consider returning to the Commission in a permanent position, to lead negotiations with the United Kingdom following its decision to leave the European Union?’ Naturally, I am taken aback by the question. To tell the truth, the day after the British Brexit vote, my mind had been more on how I could make myself useful in my own country, during what looked likely to be both a historic and a perilous period.

For fifteen years now, at various times and in various different capacities, I have had to deal with the major issues that will lie at the heart of the Brexit negotiations: first as Commissioner for Regional Policy and Constitutional Affairs from 1999 to 2004, then a little later in 2008 as President of the European Agricultural and Fisheries Council – but above all from 2010 to 2014 as European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services.

My answer to Jean-Claude Juncker is therefore unhesitating and positive. ‘I have to check how the idea will go down in certain quarters’, he adds with a smile. ‘Don’t mention anything, we’ll talk again soon…’

That evening, we have a beer together in the hotel restaurant while watching the European Cup semi-final between France and Germany. France wins 2–0. What a day!