Mr Barnier, 68, will speak give the two-hour lecture the Catholic University in the Dutch-speaking town of Leuven in Flanders, Belgium. Express.co.uk can reveal the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator will avoid talking about his day job and instead focus his attentions on climate change, foreign policy and security. Mr Barnier’s speech is being billed as part of his “greatest hits” tour, which has seen him address audiences in a number of countries while he waits for the result of cross-party talks between Theresa May’s Conservatives and Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour.
During a weekend interview with French broadcaster LCI, Mr Barnier suggested that the cross-party talks could be concluded in the next few weeks.
He said: “This week will be very important. We will have the results of the negotiations between the Labour Party and Theresa May’s Government.
“Are these talks going to yield something?”
The Brussels negotiator urged both sides not to question or challenge the 585-page withdrawal agreement as part of their talks.
“The two parties agree that the deal we have is the only one possible, the deal we have reached in non-negotiable,” he said.
“Mrs May agrees, so too Jeremy Corbyn. What we could negotiate and improve, is the political declaration that defines our future relationship with Britain.”
But, tonight Mr Barnier will focus on potentially setting himself up for a senior role in the European Commission’s next mandate.
Speaking of his presidential credentials, he said on Sunday: “I’m not a candidate today.”
His tour of the bloc is set to continue, with a trip to Copenhagen, Denmark set to be confirmed shortly.
Mr Barnier last delivered a speech at the College of Europe’s Natolin campus, in Warsaw, Poland, on March 29.
He said: “I personally regretted the UK’s decision to leave the European Union.
“In today’s more dangerous, less stable world, with fiercer competition from emerging and developed markets, we, Europeans, have strong reasons to be even more united, not divided.”
He used the rest of his address to set out why he believes “Europe is misunderstood and sometimes unpopular”.