Remarks of Miriam González

Date01 January 2018
158
Remarks by
MIRIAM GONZÁLEZ*
It is a huge pleasure to me to be here. e last time I was in Dublin it was several
years ago, when I was an adolescent learning English (at this point you should
surely be thinking ‘you are not so old’). I have many, many Irish friends that I had
forgotten and it is a pleasure to rediscover this today. What a hugely welcoming
country you are, and I have started to recognise some people already who have been
at my previous meetings so it is even better to spend some time with you.
I am a Spanish trade lawyer and an ex-trade negotiator. I work for clients, in
my capacity as a trade lawyer, who both defend Brexit and who hate Brexit and
therefore I see people on both sides. I should really declare my interest because I am
myself a Europeanist and have been, as you have heard, an ocial at the European
Commission and (as those of you who read the Daily Mail will know) that I am
also married to one of the politicians who has been campaigning that the UK
should not leave the European Union. So I come from a very clear side.
I am most oen asked two dierent questions by clients: one of them is ‘can you do
something to keep us as exactly as we are?’ and the other one is ‘do you think there
is any chance that Brexit may not happen?’. It is fantastic to spend the day here in
Ireland, hearing a completely dierent question which is ‘how come the Brits are
backtracking as early as they are in relation to the Northern Irish border’, so it is a
nice diversity of views, which is very refreshing.
As a trade negotiator, I am obsessive about the timing and the choreography of what
you have ahead. I think that what is important for every single EU Member State,
every company and every sector is to think not only about where your interests are,
but how do you think that the choreography is going to move? What is the point
where you have maximum leverage to move your objectives forward? For that, you
need to understand, which is something that I think that your neighbours on the
other side of the Northern Irish border seem not to understand so clearly, is that
you need to read the other side. Reading the other side in the case of the European
Union, I think that we oen forget how defensive the UK feels right now. We have
grown used to seeing the UK disrupting European Union, giving us lessons about
what we should be or should not be. It is easy not to realise how profoundly divided
the country is now and how on-the-defensive they feel, not only politically but also
economically.
It is certainly the case that politically right now the UK does not make a pretty
picture. ere are huge divisions under the Brexit discussions: not only political
divisions, but territorial divisions, young and old divisions, rural and urban
* Miriam González is a Partner at Dechert LLP.

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