Jean-Claude Juncker's chief of staff denies May dinner leaks
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Version 3 of 12. The European commission president’s chief of staff has denied being behind leaks of conversations at Theresa May’s recent dinner meeting in Brussels, and warned that others are seeking to “frame” the EU and undermine “constructive relations” between Brussels and Downing Street over Brexit. An account of the dinner on 16 October, published in a German newspaper, describes May “begging for help” and appearing “anxious”, “tormented”, “despondent and discouraged”. Jean-Claude Juncker’s aide Martin Selmayr tweeted on Monday that he had nothing to do with the article, after Nick Timothy, May’s most senior aide until he resigned after the general election, blamed him for the disclosures. “After constructive Council meeting, Selmayr does this. Reminder that some in Brussels want no deal or a punitive one”, Timothy tweeted. Selmayr insisted that Juncker had not made the attributed comments and said none of the commission president’s staff had briefed details to the newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). “This is false. I know it does’t fit your cliché, @NickJTimothy. But @JunckerEU & I have no interest in weakening PM”, tweeted Selmayr, who is widely regarded as one of the most powerful figures in Brussels. He went on: “But it seems some have interest in undermining constructive relations @JunckerEU & PM May. Who? is the real question. “I deny that 1/we leaked this; 2/Juncker ever said this; 3/we are punitive on Brexit. It’s an attempt 2 frame EU side & 2 undermine talks.” The FAZ article says that Juncker, who had a debrief with the Article 50 taskforce after the dinner, had described the meal to his colleagues. Following last week’s dinner, a joint statement was released agreeing to accelerate Brexit talks, and describing the meal as having taken place in a “constructive and friendly atmosphere”. Juncker had promised a “postmortem” of the meal to reporters, but no other details had emerged during the week. On Sunday, however, FAZ claimed that May had begged for help during the meal. She had emphasised to Juncker the risk she had taken in “giving up the hard Brexit course and asking for a transitional period of two years, in which everything is going to be the same”. May was also reported to have recalled “that she had also moved on the delicate issue of finances”. The paper added: “And she let them know that friend and foe at home were breathing down her neck, ready to strike. She said she had no room for manoeuvre, and that the Europeans would have to make it for them”. It went on: “The prime minister is drawn from the struggle with her own party. Under her eyes she wears deep rings. She looks like someone who does not sleep through the night.” The newspaper claimed that, despite denials from Downing Street, the meal had been arranged at “the last minute”. It also reported a senior source suggesting that “to break the deadlock on money, May must explain to the Brits why a chaotic Brexit would cost more than Brussels’s bill”. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, meanwhile, had told the prime minister that Berlin was not willing to solve Britain’s problems, during a phone call with May ahead of a European council summit on Thursday and Friday, it was claimed. At that summit, EU leaders ruled that insufficient progress had been made in the negotiations for Brussels to satisfy the British government and open talks on a future trading relationship. Earlier this year, Selmayr was accused of leaking to FAZ details of a private dinner between May and Juncker at Downing Street, which the commission president was said to have left “10 times more sceptical” than when he arrived. |