Michael Barnier, chief EU negotiator for Brexit, has been issuing dire threats about a punishment clause that would allow Brussels to ground aircraft and block trade if the UK failed to obey EU rules during the transition period. Not only is he making himself even more unpopular in the UK, he’s becoming a serious concern to other EU countries, who worry if he pushes too hard it’ll turn into a no-deal Brexit. At that point the EU would lose a considerable sum of money and the damage to several EU economies would be considerable, with French farmers, German manufacturers, Spain’s tourism industry etc taking a hit. The Eastern European countries and Italy are also less than pleased about his bull-in-a-china-shop approach.
Born 9 Jan 1951 4.40pm La Tronche, France, he’s a Sun Capricorn square Neptune both of which are under assault from tr Pluto hard aspects this year, so it could turn into the worst time of his life. He’s also got a ruthless, unsubtle 8th house Mars Moon in Aquarius opposition Pluto. He looks overly-stressed and on the edge this month with tr Uranus opposition his Mercury/Pluto midpoint. By early 2019, birth time being accurate, tr Neptune will conjunct his midheaven into 2020, so he won’t be celebrating a resounding success.
There is alarm on his relationship chart with the EU this month with tr Uranus opposition the composite Neptune; a weakening of confidence through this year as tr Saturn is conjunct the composite Jupiter; and a definite chill early in 2019 and on with tr Saturn conjunct the composite Sun Mars.
His relationship with Emmanuel Macron is showing signs of slippage from early this May onwards for two or three years with tr Neptune first opposing the composite Saturn, then Pluto; with increasing chill and separation through this year as well from tr Saturn conjunct the composite Sun.
With Merkel, now semi-established in a coalition government, there’s major confusion and aggravation between them from this March onwards as tr Pluto squares their composite Sun Neptune, moving on in 2019 to conjunct the composite Mars.
No one likes him or his bullying methods, which, if left unchecked, could backfire into a spectacular shoot-in-the-foot exercise.
My understanding is that they have always intended to come out of THE customs union, but they are looking to create a new customs union which will allow the border to remain open.
Which would, in fact, mean having to comply to EU Directives without having any say on them, the way Norway and Switzerland do. If you’ve ever been to neither country, you know what that will mean to imported goods prices. These are by far the most expensive countries in Europe. It’s alright with them, since Norwegian GDP per capita is twice that of Britain and Swiss almost a third higher. They can afford the goods – and moreover, in Switzerland especially, most big towns are only an hour away from a cheaper country, so people can actually do their shopping in Italy, France, Germany or Austria. Brits do not have this luxury.
So, Brexit will ultimately hurt people with lower income, spending most of their disposable income on necessities such as food, the most.
Who would want his job, that is, trying to deal with Westminster? As far as I can make out it must be a nightmare for him putting up with the constant delays and U-turns. In December Theresa May signed up to a “no hard border in Ireland” and now, just weeks later, they say that they are pulling the UK out of the customs union. They can’t be trusted and you can see why he’s made an announcement about penalties being implemented in the event of Westminster breaching agreements.
Meanwhile Sein Fein are mandating for a reunification referendum in Ireland and the Scots are getting angrier by the minute due to the treatment being doled out to them. Support for staying in the single market / customs union has risen from 62% in Scotland to around 70% now. A recipe for ‘Union’ disaster.
Why anyone would support this Westminster government in agreeing, voting, to pull out of the EU (warts and all) is beyond my ken, as their track record has highlighted that they couldn’t run a garden fete. Policing, education, NHS, Prison Service, etc, etc, are a shambolic mess. A mess that they can’t blame on the EU.