German Chancellor Angela Merkel with Theresa May, at a press conference in 2016.
Shortly after Theresa May triggered Article 50, Angela Merkel gave a response. Her comments on the UK-EU negotiations are already being over-interpreted. Sky News, AFP, the Mirror, the Independent and many others are reporting that she has ruled out parallel negotiations.
She has not (at least not in these comments) ruled out parallel discussions. What she has said is that questions must first be clarified. I would expect that she is referring to the fact that the EU will seek from the UK an in-principle agreement that, for example, the UK will settle its outstanding financial obligations. Theresa May has essentially already offered that in her letter today, and Philip Hammond has said it previously.
Merkel in fact explicitly says that she wants to talk about the future relationship soon. And she says that the questions must be clarified – not that they must be resolved.
Merkel was correct that it is both the UK and EU's interests to have a constructive negotiation process. If the EU insists on settling the entire divorce arrangement before discussing any of the future relationship, the UK is much more likely to leave with no deal – and that's bad for both sides. But that's not really a practical way of negotiating anyway. Too many of the questions are intertwined and so the divorce couldn't meaningfully be finalised without discussing the future.
This over-reaction is not likely to be the last media frenzy in the months ahead. That's part of the difficulty with negotiations. Every comment is pored over. And nuance and context can be lost, particularly if one side or the other seeks to confirm their preconceived biases.