EUROPEAN officials said the cabinet meltdown was Theresa May’s problem, not theirs.
As they absorbed the impact of the Prime Minister losing her Brexit and Foreign secretaries within 24 hours, EU leaders said they would carry on working as normal.
Asked if the departures were a problem for the EU as negotiations loom, Margaritis Schinas, the Commission’s chief spokesperson, said: “Not for us. We are here to work.”
He went on: “I think it matters a lot for the UK side because this is the person [Mr Davis] that would be the counterpart to our chief negotiator, and I think it matters a lot.
“What matters for us is the negotiating framework that our 27 member states have set for us and with which we are complying fully.
“Our position has always been very cool. We avoided positioning the Commission in terms of psychological elements: concern, enthusiasm, disappoint and so on.
“We are here to do a job – the time scale is tight, everyone knows this.”
At a joint press conference in Brussels, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker responded sarcastically when asked about Boris John’s resignation. “This clearly proves that at Chequers there was unity of views in the British Cabinet,” he joked.”
European Council President Donald Tusk said the Brexit process carried on.
He said: “The mess caused by Brexit is the biggest problem in the history of EU-UK relations and it is still very far from being resolved, with or without Mr. Davis.”
Politicians come and go but the problems they have created for people remain. I can only regret that the idea of Brexit has not left with Davis and Johnson. But who knows?"
The Portuguese Socialist MEP Ana Gomes said Chequers had lived up to it early billing as the “body bag summit”, and the resignations of the two "egotistic men" were dramatic but not surprising.
Suggesting voters be given a second referendum on Europe, she told Channel 4 News: “I think the Brexiters never figured what to propose to the EU. It’s a nightmare. Why not rethink what’s best for Britain?”
She said Mr Davis "never had any strategy and never understood what was at stake", while Mr Johnson's objective was always "to unseat Theresa May".
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