PM: NO IFS NO BUTS... BREXIT DEAL BY JULY
A BREXIT trade deal could be sealed next month after EU chiefs indicated that they will drop their hardline demands.
Boris Johnson said hopes for a favourable deal were growing yesterday, insisting the talks now needed “a bit of oomph”.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Brussels was keen to reach a compromise during a crunch video summit with the Prime Minister.
And following the hourlong conference call, a buoyant Mr Johnson said an agreement could be concluded next month.
Both sides agreed to accelerate the negotiations over the coming months to ensure a deal is in place when the Brexit transition ends on December 31.
Mr Johnson was upbeat
about the prospects of a UK-EU free trade deal following the summit with Mrs von der Leyen and other top Eurocrats to “take stock” of the negotiations.
Speaking in Downing Street, the Prime Minister said: “It’s very clear what we need to achieve. I don’t think we’re actually that far apart, but what we need now is to see a bit of oomph in the negotiations.
“The faster we can do this the better, we see no reason why you shouldn’t get that done in July.
“The issue is very clear, we fought an election based on these ideas, the manifesto was very clear.
“I certainly don’t want to see it going on to the autumn and winter as I think perhaps in Brussels they would like.”
A Brussels source said Mrs von der Leyen was also optimistic about the chances of a deal following her talks with the PM.
The source said she has instructed EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier to seek common ground with his UK counterpart David Frost.
The commission president wants the EU’s negotiating team to “take a step back” and review its demands for continued access to Britain’s fishing waters and the so-called “level playing field”, the source added.
She is understood to believe the EU should soften its approach in order to broker a compromise. She is even ready to accept the UK’s demand for full sovereignty over its coastal waters, it has been claimed.
A joint statement from the UK Government and EU following yesterday’s video summit said the trade talks so far had been “constructive”.
Four rounds of talks have been completed with legal documents setting out both sides’ proposals for a deal now exchanged, the statement said.
But it added: “The parties agreed nevertheless that new momentum was required.
“They supported the plans agreed by negotiators to intensify the talks in July and to create the most conducive conditions for concluding and ratifying a deal before the end of 2020.
“This should include, if possible, finding an early understanding on the principles underlying any agreement.
“The parties underlined their intention to work hard to deliver a relationship, which would work in the interests of the citizens of the Union and of the United Kingdom.”
Mr Johnson spent about an hour talking to Mrs von der Leyen yesterday, along with European Council President Charles Michel and European Parliament President David Sassoli.
SOMETHING of Boris Johnson’s Tiggerish nature returned yesterday after the travails of a tough month.
In a virtual meeting with EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, both parties agreed that negotiations needed to move forward apace, with Mr Johnson inviting the Commission to put a “Tiger in the tank” and help get an agreement in place by July.
His call is timely. Just over six months remain before the end of the transition period – a date that the Government is adamant should remain, despite the interregnum forced by Covid-19.
But Mr Johnson said there was a “very good” chance of getting a deal done by December and talks would intensify next month.A sense of shared purpose even seemed to emerge, with both parties welcoming “constructive discussions on the future relationship” and the PM saying the EU and UK’s positions were “not that far apart”.
It would be naïve to think that differences had been ironed out. But the normally intransigent EU seems a shade more tractable, with even the vexed fisheries question being potentially reviewed.
Further EU matters will surely be raised when French president Emmanuel Macron meets Mr Johnson in London on Thursday and we should expect knock-backs. But a sense of renewed headwind is evident, giving us a sense that we are lifting out of lockdown and once more moving forward.