LUXEMBOURG — Theresa May reached out to Brussels with a plea for political space to maneuver — and the answer came back, “Sorry, you’re on your own.”

May’s dinner in Brussels with Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier Monday was the culmination of a major diplomatic push by the British government to sell the message of her Florence speech last month — and the concessions it contained — around the Continent, ahead of an EU summit later this week.

“Since the Florence speech by the British prime minister, there is an openness and a willingness to try to move this process forward. But I think it is unlikely that we will be seeing phase 2 [on trade and the U.K.’s future relationship with the bloc] commencing at the end of this week,” Ireland’s Simon Coveney told reporters on his way into a meeting of European foreign ministers in Luxembourg Tuesday.

One U.K. official said May had run out of political space in the U.K. and needed the EU27 to cut her a break: “She doesn’t have any more room for maneuver so they have to help create it for her.”

But among May’s negotiating partners, there appears to be little appetite to help her out.

“[The Brussels dinner] is a sign of desperation, but I cannot see much willingness to help her,” said an official from one of the largest EU countries, adding that despite her weak position in the party there was no mood amongst the EU27 to prop her up to prevent a potentially more hard-line replacement taking office. “She’s in such a difficult position that nobody seems to want her job in her party,” he said.

“The fact that the dinner was not on the agenda before and was agreed at the last minute is an indication of her desperation,” said a diplomat from another core EU country.

May’s risky speech

The British diplomatic charm offensive — which included calls to French President Emmanuel Macron and German leader Angela Merkel in recent days — has helped change the mood around the negotiations but achieved almost no movement in the EU’s position.

An EU diplomat from a Central European country said the dinner “hasn’t saved the day.”

“Both parties have agreed to the need to speed up,” he said, referring to a joint Juncker-May statement calling for the talks to “accelerate.”

“But I think the British side has interpreted it as if we have to make most of the effort,” the diplomat said. “The conditions of the first phase are clear though and there has not been sufficient progress.”

An adviser to Macron who was briefed on May’s Monday call with the president said both sides had used it to set out their positions in greater detail. “May explained that she had taken a risk with her Florence speech, and hoped for positive political signals. The president said France was committed to the sequence of negotiations agreed with other member states, but that he wanted to help May to the extent that was possible.”

The adviser emphasized that the draft European Council summit conclusions calling for the EU27 to begin “internal discussions” on what they wanted from a Brexit transition were intended in part to send a positive signal to London: “We are not reducing the demands to enter phase 2 [of the talks on trade and the U.K.’s future relationship with the EU], but we are preparing for phase 2, which is at once useful for the 27 and a constructive signal for the United Kingdom.”

But he added that the EU27 were in for the long haul: “We need to keep our calm. It’s a negotiation. It will go on for another year. All throughout, we’re going to be a demanding partner.”

Pay your club dues

Even the Netherlands, considered more sympathetic to the U.K., did not deviate from the EU27 line that more concessions are required from London before the talks can move forward. “I hope that in the U.K. reality comes in that it is a possibility to come to the next stage in December,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders.

“If you are a member of a club, I think you know that very well in the United Kingdom, you pay your dues when you leave. That’s part of the negotiations as we do them.”

And despite the concessions made by May in Florence, foreign ministers in Luxembourg said they still need more details on her intentions.

Belgium’s Didier Reynders said the EU27 wanted more “concrete proposals,” while Andres Samuelsen of Denmark said: “We are still waiting for a more precise definition from the Brits.”

Others have been blunter: “Sometimes it’s very difficult to see … what Britain really wants from the negotiations,” said Samuli Virtanen, Finnish state secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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