Is she coming for the moules-frites?

EU diplomats expressed puzzlement at a meeting of ambassadors Thursday over why Theresa May is coming to Brussels on Saturday for talks about a key Brexit document that will have been finalized some 24 hours earlier. They are adamant that any attempt at a last-minute renegotiation by the British prime minister should be prevented.

EU leaders are due to meet in Brussels Sunday to formally approve both the text of the divorce agreement between the U.K. and the EU and a separate political statement setting out a framework for future relations between the two. The U.K. prime minister then has a matter of weeks to convince a majority of MPs at home to back the deal, a vote she looks unlikely to win in the face of renewed criticism from all sides of the House of Commons.

The Political Declaration, which was agreed today by London and the European Commission but is still being examined by EU member countries, will be locked down at a meeting of prime ministerial advisers, known as sherpas, on Friday morning or later that day. But May announced after talks with Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday evening that she would be returning to Brussels for further talks with the Commission president on Saturday, the day before the leaders’ summit.

EU27 ambassadors were given first sight of the draft Political Declaration text at a meeting Thursday morning. It is now being considered by officials in national capitals. Juncker tweeted that it was “agreed in principle at political level.”

The draft “has no big problems” one EU diplomat said, but if the text is to be finalized on Friday, diplomats at Thursday’s meeting of ambassadors asked the Commission to explain the purpose of May’s face-to-face meeting with Juncker on Saturday, according to four EU diplomats.

“If she will be here on Saturday afternoon and they reopen the text, then there will be no time for ambassadors or sherpas to look at it,” said one diplomat. That would mean the text being presented to leaders with some points still not finalized, something that EU diplomats said is not acceptable.

Spanish sticking point

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has already made clear that she will not attend the summit if the text has not already been locked down.

“The Commission said the text was agreed by May and one of the conditions of the meeting is not to re-open it,” said one diplomat who was at the ambassadors’ gathering, a point confirmed by three other diplomats.

Asked the purpose of May and Juncker’s Saturday meeting given that agreement between the Commission and the U.K. has already been reached, a U.K. government official said: “The prime minister said in her statement this was about bringing things to a conclusion.” The Commission’s chief spokesperson Margaritis Schinas said the purpose of the meeting is to prepare for the European Council summit the following day.

At this stage, the text “should not be reopened by May Saturday,” said another EU diplomat, concerned about what her “mandate” is at that meeting with Juncker. However, the diplomat said there are still issues that from the EU point of view “we don’t have control on” — notably Gibraltar.

The disputed territory on Spain’s Mediterranean coast has emerged as the biggest obstacle on the EU side to getting the deal through. Spain’s government is demanding tighter wording in the Withdrawal Agreement text to make clear that negotiations on the future relationship between Gibraltar and the EU will be conducted separately to those between the U.K. and EU — and that they can only proceed with Madrid’s approval.

Spanish diplomats point out that changes have been made to the Withdrawal Agreement text since it was published last week, so further changes to the Political Declaration should be allowed on what they regard as a vital issue. On Thursday, the EU and U.K. agreed a change clarifying the length of a potential transition period extension of “up to one or two years.” Other diplomats argue that was possible only because the point was left open in the original text.

Even so, Foreign Minister Josep Borrell told POLITICO on Tuesday that he would be happy for Spain’s concerns to be addressed in either text, but the statement published today makes no mention of Gibraltar.

The office of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said it is studying the draft Political Declaration but Madrid’s official position continues to be that expressed by him on Wednesday: “Spain will have to vote ‘no’ unless it’s absolutely guaranteed that the future relationship of Gibraltar with the EU will require the previous agreement of Spain and the U.K., as was agreed at the beginning of the negotiating process.”

Spain’s stance has caused irritation among some diplomats who are keen to avoid last-minute hitches, but one EU diplomat expressed support for Spain’s position, saying Madrid has played “fair” on the Gibraltar issue throughout the Brexit negotiations. “[Spain] has an opportunity to catch up on the issue of sovereignty, something that is important for them,” the diplomat said.

In a statement outside No. 10 Downing Street Thursday, May said she has been in touch with Sánchez by phone last night. “I am confident that on Sunday we will be able to agree a deal that delivers for the whole U.K. family, including Gibraltar,” she said. Two diplomats expressed optimism that the dispute would be resolved.

On the issue of fisheries, there were grumblings at the ambassadors’ meeting that the Political Declaration is not ambitious enough on the issue of access to U.K. waters once Britain is outside the EU’s Commons Fisheries Policy. In a statement to MPs in the House of Commons later in the day, May pointed out that she has rejected moves to trade off fishing access to U.K. waters.

“We have firmly rejected a link between access to our waters and access to markets,” she said.

Diego Torres contributed reporting.