by Tian Dongdong
BRUSSELS, June 29 (Xinhua) -- In the long-awaited concluding press conference Friday, the European Council President Donald Tusk spent about 10 minutes elaborating on the Union's newly-reached migration deal and eurozone reform, but only gave 25 seconds to Brexit.
Showing apparent dissatisfaction with the current negotiation, Tusk quickly ended the already brief-enough comment with a clear warning for British Prime Minister Theresa May's cabinet: "This is the last call to lay the cards on the table."
Tusk's brief touch on the stagnant issue was just an episode of May's embarrassment during the two-day European Council summit, where EU leaders gathered to discuss migration, Brexit and eurozone reform, -- she came for more compromises and flexibility from the European Union (EU), but only found Brexit being sidelined.
For May, the past three months since EU's spring summit in late March were more than rough. As her Conservative government was deeply divided on the future relationship with the EU, May is caught between pro-EU MPs who want to keep close economic ties with the Union, and pro-Brexit lawmakers demanding a clean break to ensure Britain can sign new trade deals with others.
On Brexit, May actually had very few new things to offer in Brussels, and the EU27 knew it very well.
No wonder Michel Barnier, EU's chief Brexit negotiator, repeated his familiar tune, if not cliche, before going to brief EU leaders on the status of negotiations.
"We have made progress but huge and serious divergences remain on Ireland... Now we are waiting for the UK white paper and I hope it will contain workable and realistic proposals," he noted, warning as usual that "the time is short."
But even the chief negotiator just brought merely five-minute's attention from EU 27 leaders for Brexit.
"Ten hours were spent on migration (in the summit), but only five minutes on Brexit," said local media POLITICO.
Facing a rebuke from EU leaders who say progress on Brexit negotiations has been too slow, May tried to fight back by playing security card.
Speaking at the summit dinner Thursday, May warned her fellow leaders that the EU's current approach to security cooperation in Brexit talks would hamper the Britain's ability to share information on wanted criminals and collaborate on tracking terror networks.
Knowing it is one of Britain's strongest points of leverage in the talks, May urged them to think of their own citizens' safety by offering Britain more flexibility in negotiations on security cooperation after Brexit.
Her forthright words marked a significant toughening of her language in the negotiations, but the EU27 remained unmoved.
"The EU27 has taken note of what has been achieved so far, however there is a great deal of work ahead and the most difficult part is unresolved, if you want to reach a proper deal, we need a quick progress," said Tusk.
For him, the ball is still in May's court.
