From seabass to City bankers, the key flashpoints

EU STANDARDS

WHAT THE EU WANTS: Brussels has said it is ready to offer a ‘highly ambitious’ trade deal with zero tariffs and zero quotas – but with strings attached. It says the UK must agree to maintain EU standards on workers’ rights, environmental protections and state aid so British businesses do not have a competitive advantage over those on the continent.

WHAT THE UK WANTS: Boris Johnson insisted yesterday there was ‘no need’ for a free trade agreement to involve accepting EU rules and regulations. He made the argument that Brussels has not imposed similar obligations on other countries it has struck trade deals with. At the weekend, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said a commitment to stick to the EU’s way of doing things ‘obviously defeats the point of Brexit’.

FISHING RIGHTS

EU: Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, insists that allowing European trawlers into UK waters is ‘inextricably linked’ to securing a trade deal. France and other maritime nations want a 25-year settlement based on the current quota system to ‘avoid economic dislocation’ for continental fishermen who currently land 43 per cent of the fish caught here.

UK: The Prime Minister has said he is ready to consider an agreement on fisheries but warned it ‘must reflect the fact that the UK will be an independent coastal state from the end of this year, controlling our own waters’. He has proposed annual negotiations to ensure ‘British fishing grounds are first and foremost for British boats’.

GIBRALTAR

EU: Brussels has backed Spain’s territorial claim to Gibraltar by handing Madrid a veto over whether it is included in a Brexit trade deal. The centuries-old dispute over the Rock has been an issue throughout Brexit talks, with Spain provoking a row last year by insisting it be referred to as a ‘colony’ in EU legislation.

UK: Mr Johnson said yesterday: ‘The UK will be negotiating on behalf of the entire UK family and that certainly includes Gibraltar and the sovereignty of Gibraltar remains, as

everybody knows, indivisible.’ The 1713 Treaty of Utrecht gave the peninsula to Britain in perpetuity. In 1967 and 2002 its people voted against Spanish sovereignty.

ROLE FOR EU JUDGES

EU: Brussels wants the European Court of Justice to be given a legal role in disputes between the EU and UK over the agreement. Mr Barnier also warned yesterday the UK would automatically be kicked out of joint law enforcement programmes if it pulled out of the European Convention on Human Rights.

UK: Mr Johnson said yesterday an agreement could not include ‘any jurisdiction for the European Court of Justice over the UK’s laws’. He warned that a deal ‘must respect the sovereignty of both parties and the autonomy of our legal orders’.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

EU: The EU is refusing to negotiate on whether firms based in the City of London will be allowed to continue to serve clients on the continent. It plans to retain the unilateral right to decide whether British firms can keep trading, which could be withdrawn with as little as 30 days’ notice.

UK: Ministers accept that banks in the City of London will not get an unqualified right to trade in the EU, but want the notice period lengthened. They insist the deal should ‘provide a predictable, transparent and business-friendly environment’.