http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/world/europe/theresa-may-britain-brexit.html 2016-09-14 15:36:18 Theresa May, Britain’s Prime Minister, Plays the ‘Brexit’ Waiting Game After almost three months on the job, David Cameron’s successor has said little about how her country will withdraw from the European Union, and tough decisions loom. === LONDON — She is known in the British civil service as Theresa May, or Maybe Not. But after months in which she has provided little clue as to how she intends to negotiate Britain’s exit from the Mrs. May, the surprising successor as prime minister to David Cameron, who said a day after losing the June referendum on membership in the bloc that he Mrs. May got through the summer by saying, “Brexit means Brexit,” a gnomic statement that raised countless questions; left cabinet ministers trying to shape the debate to their own, often diverging, views; and annoyed her counterparts in Europe, who are eager to get on with the negotiations. The leaders of the 27 other European Union nations will meet on Friday in Bratislava, Slovakia, but Mrs. May has been conspicuously excluded from the gathering, intended to begin discussing the shape and direction of the bloc after a British exit. Like much of Britain, the European leaders are still trying to discern her priorities and to size up her approach to carrying out a historic and complex rupture. If Mrs. May has signaled any strategy, it is to play for time, giving her government — well stocked with members who were among the most prominent supporters of an exit — a chance to hash out a negotiating position, and perhaps to allow the political passions of the spring and summer to subside somewhat. Despite pressure from Brussels to move quickly, she has said that Britain will not invoke The choices ahead are extremely complex and contentious, and for now, Mrs. May is letting various members of her cabinet set their own priorities, while emphasizing that the government — namely, she — has not yet taken official positions. She has no intention, she told Parliament, of giving “a running commentary” of the negotiations. In her cabinet, she put prominent advocates of leaving the European Union in central positions to manage that exit: Mrs. May then set them, and some of their more pro-European colleagues, against one another. They have been fighting over turf, and over how many Foreign Office staff members could be sent to work at the other ministries. And she ruled that all three should share the use of While Mrs. May has remained nearly mute on the subject of the path leading to a British exit, her ministers have managed to inject their views into the public debate. Mr. Johnson, for one, wrote her a “private” memo setting out his position, which was In it, Mr. Johnson, reflecting concern among campaigners from the “Leave” camp that Mrs. May would water down their victory by negotiating a less-than-full break from Brussels, laid down four red lines: control over immigration from European Union countries, an end to British contributions to the European budget, ceasing the application of European legislation to Britain, and removing the country from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice Mr. Johnson has also thrown his support behind a new lobbying group, Change Britain, introduced over the weekend and intended to maintain pressure on the prime minister to have what is known as a “hard exit” from the European Union, with control over immigration and no attempt to bargain with it to preserve duty-free access to the single European market of 500 million people. Other supporters include prominent Conservatives like At some point, Mrs. May’s studied silence risks creating a leadership vacuum or feeding into the economic uncertainty that has hung over Britain since the referendum. The most fundamental decision may be how much to prioritize control over immigration, one of the clear demands from the referendum, and ending the freedom of movement and labor that membership in the European Union requires. While those favoring a British departure promised during the referendum campaign that immigration could be controlled and that Britain could retain access to the single market, agreement by the other 27 countries is nearly inconceivable, as it would overthrow one of the basic tenets of the bloc: that market access and freedom of movement are inextricably linked. While reclaiming control over the nation’s borders seems to be the priority for many of the voters who favored leaving the bloc, many business interests in Britain — not least the financial services industry in the City of London and big manufacturers — want to retain access to the single market. That trade-off, and the degree to which Britain would be willing to make other concessions to Europe to retain market access, is likely to be the trickiest issue confronting Ms. May. Mr. Johnson aside, would Britain be willing to pay into the European Union budget as a nonmember, When Mr. Davis told the House of Commons this month that it was “very improbable” that Britain would remain in the single market, Mrs. May, through her spokeswoman, chided him and said he was only “setting out his opinion.” “The prime minister’s view is that we should be ambitious and go after the best deal we can,” said the spokeswoman, Helen Bower. Britain’s financial sector, which represents 10 percent of gross domestic product, wants to preserve “passporting rights,” the ability to offer services throughout the rest of the bloc, including in the 19 countries that use the euro. The chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, who backed remaining in the European Union, also wants to preserve passporting rights. But French officials like In an interview in London, Mr. Macron said that financial institutions based in Britain must be prevented from selling their services in the eurozone after the country leaves the European Union. Passporting is an integral part of the single market, he said, and “should not be seen as a technical issue but a matter of sovereignty.” He continued: “We have the eurozone. Could we accept to be cleared, regulated and de facto have inflows and outflows from a country that has decided to leave the E.U.? For me, definitely not.” In the meantime, Mrs. May and her country are getting a taste of what it will mean to be outside Europe. While the summit meeting on Friday in Bratislava of the other European Union leaders is expected to produce little of substance, its theme is “security,” including borders, migration, terrorism and further defense cooperation. These are issues in which Britain, still a full member of the European Union, has a considerable interest and stake. How much cooperation will Britain after its departure want or expect from the European Union on such matters as policing, intelligence sharing, arrest warrants, extradition? Mrs. May, Britain’s home secretary for six years, will have to make some choices there, as well.