The president of the EU commission has said talks on Britain’s departure will be “very, very, very difficult” as Europe’s press turned hostile, attacking Theresa May’s Brexit plans as isolationist, unachievable, extremist – and disastrous for the UK. Diplomats see reasons to be cheerful and fearful in May's Brexit speech Read moreIn Berlin, chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed the “clarity” provided by May’s speech but said after talks with the Italian prime minister, Paolo Gentiloni, that the remaining EU member states would begin Brexit talks with a united front. But if the politicians and officials were diplomatic, much of the continent’s press was openly scornful. May’s speech may have been filled with “a glut of conciliatory adjectives” and “superficial pleasantries”, Christophe Scheuerman wrote, but it was in reality “a catalogue of demands topped with a dash of threat”. But he, too, said negotiating Brexit would be an “arduous task”, and repeated his assertion that any Brexit deal must be inferior to EU membership.

Source: The Guardian January 18, 2017 14:45 UTC