Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator for the Brexit file, said on Thursday that the EU is not impressed by the threats posed by British Conservative politicians to have a Brexit without an exit agreement take place on October 31.

In an interview with the BBC, Barnier said that if the United Kingdom (UK) opts for that measure, it will have to bear the consequences.

“I think that they are well-informed and competent on the British side and know how we work on the EU side, and also know that we have never been impressed by such a threat. not productive to express it, “said the EU negotiator.

According to Barnier, the exit agreement signed by Brussels with the departing British Prime Minister Theresa May is “the only way to leave the EU in an orderly manner”. The deal was rejected three times by the British House of Commons, which led to the resignation of May. Her replacement will probably be announced on Tuesday, July 23.

The man who is likely to succeed May, former Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, has announced that he will not be scared of resigning without an agreement on 31 October. At the same time, he says he is confident that he can reopen negotiations with the EU to conclude a better agreement.

Barnier reiterated the well-known EU position: there is no reason to talk to the British again.

In the same BBC program, Panorama, the man who is seen as de facto vice prime minister under May, David Lidington, revealed that the British government received a secret offer from the right hand of EC President Jean-Claude Juncker, Martin Selmayr. He would have said to London that the EU is ready to postpone the Brexit for five years.

Selmayr also appeared in the program. He said he was “very sure” that the UK is not sufficiently prepared for a deal-free exit.

“We have seen the preparations for a hard Brexit made on our side of the border. We do not see the same level of preparation on the other side of the border.”

“They don’t have a plan”

EC Vice-President Frans Timmermans opened a booklet about the first Brexit negotiations with the British in 2017. According to him, “they were running around like idiots”.

“We thought they were so brilliant beforehand,” said Timmermans. “That somewhere in a vault in Westminster would be a Harry Potter-like book full of tricks and strategies.”

That impression changed when he saw David Davis, then the British minister for Brexit, speak in public. “I saw how he did not appear in the negotiations, did not negotiate, displayed his grandeur elsewhere, and I thought,” My God, they have no plan, they have no plan. “