Brussels Brexit negotiations break down over Irish border, satellites

European Union officials have warned that current UK Brexit negotiation tactics are preventing any chance of progress in the talks, sending the pound back down to levels last seen in December.

Three days of talks in Brussels broke down with the issue of the Irish border still much more than just a bump in the road to Brexit. In addition this week there has been confrontation after the UK requested access to the Galileo satellite post-Brexit which the EU denied.

Although the Galileo project was always a satellite for the EU's internal use, the UK requested an extension for when it leaves the block. Chancellor Philip Hammond warned that the UK would have to build its own satellite navegation system to rival the EU if they continue to block Galileo.

"We need access to a satellite system of this kind," the Chancellor said on Friday. "A plan has always been to work as a core member of the Galileo project, contributing financially and technically to the project.

“If that proves impossible then Britain will have to go it alone, possibly with other partners outside Europe and the US, to build a third competing system. But for national security strategic reasons we need access to a system and will ensure that we get it," he added.

A senior EU official said that the UK did not see aware of all the steps it needs to take to avoid border checks in Ireland, with the UK not coming to terms with what exiting the EU actually meant, Bloomberg and the Guardian reported.

“I am concerned that if the current debate continues, in three months’ time it will be the EU that will be made responsible for the Brexit decision. We need the UK to accept the consequences of its own decisions," the official said.

They added: “We need to have the recognition that the backstop has to be Northern Ireland specific. We have to do away with the fantasy that there is an all-UK solution to that.”

On the other hand UK officials assure they are providing detail reports and threatens the EU to stop insulting the UK or it could end in a future relationship that hurts thousands of European and British citizens.

For now the EU said that either the UK include a “backstop” for NI that will last until the border issue is settled or the region will stay in the customs union and single market. UK Prime Minister Theresa May has said that the UK would not accept that option under any circumstance.

The EU recently dismissed May’s plan to keep the whole of the UK aligned with Europe past 2021 until a future deal is arranged, claiming that only the region of NI would be necessary.

Sterling was down 0.2% against the dollar to 1.3352 on Friday morning.

Citing "acrimony in Brussels", analyst Michel van Dulken at Accendo Markets explained that these tensions in the talks in Brussels are affecting financial markets, supporting the FTSE 100 stock index by weakening the pound, which benefits overseas focused companies. "BoE Governor Carney also warned last night that a disorderly Brexit might require another interest rate cut to support the economy."

In a speech to the Society of Professional Economists in the City, Carney said the BoE was prepared to cut interest rates and restart quantitative easing to support the economy and protect jobs in the event of a “disorderly” Brexit, the same framework as applied after the referendum, when the Bank cut rates by a quarter point to 0.25 per cent and injected £60 billion of QE into the economy,