Wherever one listens for the European mood music on Brexit these days, there is one phrase that keeps popping up: âno cherry-picking.â (The Germans say Rosinenpicken â âraisin pickingâ â but the sentiment is much the same.) You hear it from the Chancellery of Berlin, in the corridors of the European Parliament and from the mouth of Viktor Orbánâs spokesperson.
What at first sounded like a talking point has morphed into a strategic anchor.
The EU has come to view Brexit as a âmission impossibleâ â an existential threat with no upsides.
While the initial preference among Brussels powerbrokers was for a kind of soft Brexit that saw the U.K. continuing to participate in some core parts of the EU, like the single market, that mood is changing.
Now that Theresa May wants out of the single market, Britainâs possible halfway house looks to national capitals and Brussels like greedy âcherry-picking.â Folks in Brussels are starting to batten the hatches and think: Our job is to guard the interests of the 440 million, not play nice with the other 65 million.
They are unimpressed when David Davis turns up to meetings praising U.K-EU links, and urging a strong EU. Davis is all smiles but unwilling to contribute to what makes the benefits of the EU possible, in their view.
EU parliamentary leaders, for example, imagine that Britain could be seeking as many as 20 or even 50 ad-hoc agreements, enabling it to continue to participate in the bits of the EU it likes.
Yet there is already anger in some quarters that after Denmark voted to leave Europol in 2015, Jean-Claude Juncker helped stitch up a deal that allows the Danish government to say itâs out of Europol, while retaining all of the data and benefits of membership.
Multiply the frustration with Denmark by many degrees and you have the emerging attitude to a âcherry-pickingâ Brexit.
âWhen people donât want to participate, fine, but from now on they have to live with the results,â said one top MEP. When Brussels says âno cherry-pickingâ read âHard Brexit, here we come.â
This insight is from POLITICOâs Brexit Files newsletter, a daily afternoon digest of the best coverage and analysis of Britainâs decision to leave the EU. Read todayâs edition or subscribe here.