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BRUSSELS Michel Barnier has a dealmaker's flair for gauging what the other side can accept but as Theresa May prepares to launch Brexit negotiations some EU officials wonder if Brussels' man can really figure out what she wants.

That is a nagging question for European Union leaders who need the veteran French minister and EU commissioner to best the British premier in a grand bargain that will usher Britain out, keep the other 27 member states in and limit the economic harm.

"He's very good at working out what people want, where the landing zones are to get them to agreement," said one of several people who have worked with Barnier and spoke to Reuters about the EU's chief Brexit negotiator. "He reads a room very well."

Yet some EU officials wonder if he might be "too French" or "too European" to get inside the opposition's head: "I wonder if he really understands the Brits?" said one fellow negotiator.

As agriculture minister [L5N1FU6NH], he revamped budgets yet kept France's famously restive farmers onside; in Brussels, he tightened control of vast regional grants. His low-key, backroom style won fewer admirers, though, when he lasted just a year in the grander public role of French foreign minister.

On his Brexit qualifications, he cites his experience getting Britain to accept extensive EU financial regulations in his last job, as services commissioner in Brussels until 2014.

Years of argument ended with London agreeing all but two of dozens of measures. Colleagues praised how Barnier sensed, long before others, where the toughest problems would lie, such as an EU cap on bankers' bonuses, and how they might be resolved - in the case of bonuses, however, only when Britain failed in court.

"DANGEROUS FRENCHMAN"

That history saw his appointment branded an "act of war" by one British paper. City of London insiders say they fear Barnier has "mercantilist" instincts, a yen to rein in markets rooted in French history and a Gaullist conservatism that is at odds with freewheeling "laissez faire" culture in Britain.

But some of his old British sparring partners disagree.

"There are lots of people who are jumping up and down saying 'Oh, we've got this dangerous Frenchman in here that's going to undermine London'," said Syed Kamall, pro-Brexit leader of May's Conservatives in the European Parliament. "It's not like that.

"He's going to be a reasonable negotiator," he said. "That doesn't mean we're going to agree at the end of the day.

"But I can think of few other people that I would want on the other side of the negotiating table."

Barnier knows Brexit Secretary David Davis from their time as Europe ministers in the 1990s - part of a vast contact list of people from many walks of life that Barnier has built in four decades since he was elected to parliament aged just 27.

Not all who know Barnier share Kamall's assurance he can keep talks civil. One City executive said Barnier won "grudging respect" from British negotiators for coming to understand their issues and improving his English. But he also came over as aloof and "patrician", brusque with his staff and juniors, and "vain".

The tall, athletic form and chiselled jawline may justify a touch of vanity. But some detect, for example in his frequent references to organising the 1992 Winter Olympics in his beloved native Savoy Alps, a touch of insecurity over a career he began at business school, not Paris's elite civil service college ENA.

"KEEP CALM"

A self-styled outsider, Barnier became "more European than French" in Brussels, making a virtue of wide reading, hard graft and the stolid pragmatism of his remote, modest Alpine roots: "He's very aware of his limitations," said one person who has known him well for many years. "Underestimate him and you lose."

Focusing on Britain, Barnier shows flashes of often self-deprecating wit that may appeal. "Keep calm and negotiate," he urged May, a reference only Britons would get to a stoical World War Two poster that read "Keep Calm and Carry On"..

A tweet during a visit to Zagreb to hear Croatia's views on the divorce from Britain read: "Guess where we are today?" The photo showed him at the quirky Museum of Broken Relationships.

He needled Boris Johnson after May's foreign minister said trade barriers would hurt Italian winemakers: "Enjoying a glass of prosecco in Rome," Barnier tweeted, with a photo from a cafe.

Joking aside, he thinks he can cut a deal. He told French newspaper La Depeche he would go into talks "neither naive nor with preconceptions" and recalled his last major negotiations:

"My strategy was to work with the British and the City ... and not to pass laws against them or without them. So although we're now in a different context, a deal on Brexit is possible."

(Editing by Andrew Roche)

SEOUL/WASHINGTON North Korea fired a ballistic missile into the sea early on Sunday, the first such test since U.S. President Donald Trump was elected, and his administration indicated that Washington would have a calibrated response to avoid escalating tensions.

BERLIN Former foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was elected Germany's president on Sunday, the 12th person to hold the largely ceremonial post in the post-war era.

BERLIN German authorities on Sunday briefly closed the airport in the northern city of Hamburg after a discharge of a corrosive substance caused eye irritation and breathing difficulties among 50 people in a security check area, a police spokeswoman said.

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Monsieur Brexit - EU's Barnier braces for baffling Brits - Reuters UK

Anne-Marie Trevelyan said the British people felt disempowered and far removed from the political process under the European bloc and called for its reform after the UK leaves.

She said the remaining 27 member states should push to reinstate a purely economic framework instead of its current setup.

Speaking during a debate on Brexit on BBC Radio 4s Any Questions? The Berwick-upon-Tweed MP said the EU had deviated from its original function.

It was set up absolutely in the aftermath of war to try and stabilise Europe and try to help those countries, as theyve joined, to become democracies because democracies are the stable governments framework where every citizen is engaged with their leadership, she said.

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I think that the point is that the EU has got too big for its boots, bluntly, and its wanting to create a superstate

Anne-Marie Trevelyan

Why is it that the EU which is not the EEC (European Economic Community), which was what was set up isnt working for the British people? And indeed for many others across those states within Europe who are in the EU.

She then accused the European Union of wanting to create a superstate.

I think that the point is that the EU has got too big for its boots, bluntly, and its wanting to create a superstate, said Ms Trevelyan.

For all oflastyear, this sense of disempowerment for something too far away from us as voters, as citizens of the UK, we felt too far removed from the people who are making decisions about the curvature of bananas and any number of other things.

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She said the EU had a role in developing democracies and preserving an economic community but had lost its way.

The EU has migrated far from that and citizens dont like it, the politician added.

The British have led the way and I really hope that the EU 27, if they feel it works for them more than not, will go backwards towards an economic framework, which is not about an EU telling everybody how to run their countries.

Also speaking on the panel was the editor ofpro-EUnewspaper The New European, Matt Kelly, who insisted the European bloc was established to keep ourselves safe.

He said: The European Union was not established to regulate the curvature of a banana, it was established to regulate our propensity in a very violent continent, to stop killing ourselves and to keep ourselves safe and to develop in harmony as a community of nations.

See more here:
'EU too big for its boots!' Tory MP rips 'SUPERSTATE' Eurocrats for 'disempowering' UK - Express.co.uk

There is "no reason" an independent Scotland would not be accepted into the European Union, a key European Commission representative has said.

Jacqueline Minor, the European Commissions head of representation in the UK, said the country would already be aligned with the EU requirements and that is it would be starting from a different point that any other countries applying for the EU membership process.

Speaking on BBC's Good Morning Scotland show, Ms Minor was asked whether an independent Scotland would be able to enter the EU.

"I think, had Scotland achieved independence, there would be no reason why it would not be accepted into the normal accession process, she said.

Although Ms Minor did not say that an independent Scotland would have priority in gaining EU membership, she hinted the process could be made easier

"I think, obviously, there are some things that would facilitate that process, namely that Scotland would at a previous point have been aligned with the European acquis.

"So it would have a familiarity with European processes, it would probably still have on its statute books a fair amount of European rules, which would mean it was starting from a point different from other applicant countries, who normally have to go through the entire process of aligning their rules with European rules, she said.

Her comment came after she previously said if Scotland became independent, it would have to wait in line with other countries such as Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to join the EU, when she wasspeaking ataScottish Parliamentary Journalists Association event.

"Were Scotland to become independent, they would join that list, she said.

She also said it might be easier for Scotland to meet the membership criteria such as democracy, rule of law, anti-corruption and protection of minorities than other candidates.

SNP MSP Stuart McMillan said: "This is an important intervention, which makes clear that, as an existing member of the EU, Scotland would be in a completely different situation from other countries seeking membership.

"There is no 'queue' to join the EU. There is a process, and a country must be in line with the requirements of membership - which Scotland, as a full part of the EU up until this point, already is.

"Theresa May's determination to pursue a Tory hard Brexit is the only risk to Scotland's relationship with Europe, which is crucial for jobs, household incomes and our economy."

In her prior intervention, Ms Minor doubtedScotlands ability to secure a special deal as part of the Brexit negotiations.

"The negotiations will be with the United Kingdom and that means essentially the Westminster Government.

"The first question is will the Westminster Government argue in favour of a differentiated arrangement, and it seems to me that at present they are not suggesting that they will," she said.

The Scottish Government previously said there should be a differentiated Brexit deal since the country had a majority of voters to remain in the EU.

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'No reason' for an independent Scotland not to be accepted into EU, says European Commission representative - The Independent

The US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, greets Federica Mogherini before their bilateral meeting. Photograph: Planet Pix via Rex/Shutterstock

The EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, has warned the Trump administration not to interfere in European politics, advising it to deal with America first.

Speaking during a two-day visit to Washington, Mogherini did not make specific accusations but said that she sometimes heard voices in the new administration saying the European Union is not necessarily a good idea. Inviting us to dismantle what we have managed to build and which has brought us not only peace, but also economic strength.

Its not for me or another European to speak about domestic political choices or decisions in the US. The same goes with Europe no interference, Mogherini said, speaking at the Atlantic Council thinktank. Maybe America first means also that you have to deal with America first.

Mogherinis tone echoed the increasing alarm in Brussels over the new administrations attitudes. Donald Tusk, the head of the European Council, has listed the new US administration and its worrying declarations as one of the leading global threats to the EU.

Trump has not missed a chance to deride the EU, going out of his way to praise Brexit, and in an interview just before taking office, he depicted the continent as being dominated by Germany and on the brink of collapse.

President Trump believes that dealing bilaterally with different European countries is in US interests, that we could have a stronger relationship with the countries individually, said Ted Malloch, the man tipped to be Donald Trumps nominee as ambassador to the EU. He also accused Europe of blatant anti-Americanism.

The presidents chief strategist, Steve Bannon, gave encouragement and space to the European far right when he ran the Breitbart website, which has announced plans to expand its operations in Europe, much to the alarm of European capitals.

Mogherini stressed that she had not heard any such anti-EU sentiment in her meetings in Washington, which included the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson; the national security adviser, Michael Flynn; and the presidents son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, as well as senators from both parties.

She described all those meetings as good, and said she came away reassured on some issues, including the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, of which Trump is a strident critic and the EU a strong supporter. The administration appears to be backing off its campaign pledge to dismantle the agreement.

She also took the opportunity to remind the administration, which hosted the UK prime minister, Theresa May, as the presidents first foreign guest, and promised her a favourable trade deal, that Britain did not have the right to negotiate independently until it was outside the EU, which was two years away at least.

The strength of the EU and the unity of the EU I believe is more evident today than it was a few months ago. This has to be clearly understood here, Mogherini said. This also means respect for the EU not simply as an institution. It is a union of 28 member states.

Mogherini expressed cautious optimism that Brussels and the new administration in Washington could learn to cooperate on a case-by-case basis.

We believe we are probably entering a time of a more pragmatic and transactional kind of relationship with the United States, Mogherini said.

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EU foreign policy chief tells Trump not to interfere in Europe's politics - The Guardian

Wall Street Journal

In Departure, ECB Officials Stump for the European Union Wall Street Journal The ECB's unelected civil servants are mounting their defense of the EU as Europe's elected leaders are enmeshed in national debates. Britain is preparing to leave the EU, and elections will be held this year in France, Germany, the Netherlands and ... and more »

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In Departure, ECB Officials Stump for the European Union - Wall Street Journal