Theresa May slapped down TWICE as Angela Merkel rips up her meeting plans and her offer to act as ‘bridge’ to Trump is rejected
One leader dismissed the Prime Minister's offer and said they would communicate with the Americans on Twitter
THERESA May was dealt a double humiliation when Germany’s boss Angela Merkel ripped up plans for their sit down meeting and other EU leaders spurned her offer to act as a link to Donald Trump.
During a tense summit in Malta, the PM was told “there is no need for a bridge" with the White House by Lithuania’s premier, and Francois Hollande issued a curt warning to her not to get into bed with the unpredictable new US president.
Mrs May told EU leaders over lunch to try work "patiently and constructively" with Donald Trump, a "friend and ally" - but they remain furious at the US President’s rudeness towards the EU.
On a flying visit to the Mediterranean island, Mrs May pushed the “100 per cent commitment to Nato” she claims to have got Mr Trump in Washington last week.
But France’s President Hollande immediately questioned whether she really secured a commitment and rejected the idea of the UK being “delegated” to talk to the White House.
He hit out: “There are many countries which need to think about the fact that their future is first and foremost within the EU, rather than imagining some bilateral relationship with the US.”
“They must understand that there is no future with Trump if it is not a common position. What matters is solidarity at the EU level.”
And he added: “Who knows what the US president really wants, particularly in relation to the Atlantic alliance and burden-sharing?”
He also warned Mr Trump to stay out of EU politics and Brexit, and hinted to Mrs May that France would soon be more influential than Britain on the world stage as "the only permanent member of the Security Council to be also a member of the EU when the UK leaves."
Within minutes of the EU council summit beginning Mrs May was also subject to a withering put down from Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite who said: "I don't think there is a necessity for a bridge, we communicate with the Americans on Twitter."
The pair later awkwardly had to pose next to each other for the traditional summit 'family photograph'.
In an attempt to smooth feathers, EU Council boss Donald Tusk said "the UK can, inside the EU or outside the EU can be very helpful" in relations with America.
But in a further blow, No10 had announced that Mrs May was set for a formal bilateral meeting with the German Chancellor, but this was scaled down to a brief chat as the pair walk through the Maltese capital of Valletta on the way to lunch.
A No10 source said "they covered everything they'd wanted to discuss”, but Mrs Merkel later told the media that they had not talked about Donald Trump.
During the walkabout Mrs May was snapped making a British official - believed to be Brexit Department boss Olly Robbins - hold her handbag.
And adding to the barrage of criticism directed at Britain, Mrs Merkel also hit out at Mrs May’s threat to slash corporation tax if the EU do not give her a good Brexit deal.
The PM previously threatened to slash British rates to poach business for the EU, but Mrs Merkel said there was “no need for a race” as “we need fair tax system for investment in society.”
Ahead of the planned triggering of Article 50 next month, Mrs May used an official session of the EU council to warn her partners that migration was her "key priority" and would remain so throughout the two year negotiating period.
Hinting that Britain would “remain a reliable partner” after Brexit, Mrs May used the meeting to announce 600,000 euros toward the Libyan Coastguard and unveiled "more than £30 million of UK aid, focused on migration.”
However the PM flew back to London before the second formal meeting of the day.
Last night Lib Dem chief Tim Farron accused the PM of being forced to "skulk back to the UK in embarrassment, as the EU will decide our fate while she relaxes at 36,000ft."
And Labour’s Chuka Umunna blasted that the “process of marginalisation begins, as Britain is shut out of an afternoon of talks with our European partners.”
The summit was held in the grand surroundings of a medieval Fort St Angelo on the mediterranean coastline, where the 28 leaders feasted on a local dish of stewed beef olives and fried lampukiz.
In a lighter moment after lunch, asked to choose who the greatest threat to the EU was, Donald Trump or Vladimir Putin, EU Commission chief Jean Claude Juncker replied: “Me”.
And EU council boss Donald Tusk quipped that Eurocrats had given him the nickname “our Donald” since the election of the US President.
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