Four reasons we could walk away without EU deal
From fishing rights to court fights...
BRITAIN and the EU warned of ‘serious’ and ‘significant’ differences in the post-Brexit trade talks yesterday as the first round of negotiations concluded.
Both sides said that some common ground had been found, but four key areas could cause talks to crash and burn by the summer if compromises are not reached.
The bruising talks got under way on Monday when David Frost, Boris Johnson’s lead negotiator, took more than 100 British officials to Brussels.
Both sides have agreed to try to strike a deal by the end of the year, when Britain finally leaves the EU.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said there were ‘very serious divergences’ between the two sides.
The main sticking points are: fishing rights; the role of European judges; the UK remaining aligned to EU rules on goods – the so-called level playing field issues; and agreeing a more streamlined legal structure to the overall deal.
Britain wants a Norway-style fishing deal, where access to UK waters for EU trawlers is re-negotiated every year. But Mr Barnier dismissed the Norway model due to the number of species involved.
He said: ‘There’s 100 species or so. What we can do with Norway on five species simply isn’t possible for 100 species.’ Warning there would be no
‘Significant differences’
trade deal without a compromise on fish, Mr Barnier added: ‘I’ll be very clear on this... a trading agreement, a commercial agreement, an economic agreement with the UK will have to include a balanced solution for fisheries.’
He said the bloc was linking the issue to trade because UK fishermen will want to be able to sell their catches to the bloc on the same terms as they do now.
But EU member states want the same level of access to British waters as they receive now, with countries such as France wanting quotas to be re-negotiated only every 25 years.
The issue could prove to be the most fractious, with Mr Johnson promising to take back full control after Brexit and several EU countries’ fishing industries relying heavily on access to British seas.
Both sides have agreed to strike a deal on fishing by July.
Mr Barnier also warned a deal on security would be impossible unless the UK remains a signatory to the European Convention
on Human Rights. Judges at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg must also have a role over cases involving EU citizens in Britain.
He said: ‘When it comes to security, legal and judicial cooperation... the interpretation of European law will be done, can only be done, by the ECJ.’
The EU could threaten to shut Britain out of a raft of systems it wants access to, such as flight passenger name records and the bloc’s Schengen borders database, if its demands over the role of European judges are not met. Yesterday, a Downing
Street spokesman said: ‘In some areas there seems to be a degree of common understanding. In other areas, such as fishing, governance, criminal justice and the so-called level playing field issues, there are, as expected, significant differences.’
Mr Frost told Mr Barnier the UK was seeking a Canada-style free trade agreement, which would mean no guarantee of alignment with EU rules and no jurisdiction for EU judges.
He also assured him that Britain would maintain high standards for goods. But the bloc is demanding a commitment to prevent Britain gaining an ‘unfair competitive advantage’.
The EU also wants a singular overarching legal structure to deal with any future disputes, whereas the UK wants ‘specific sectoral agreements’ covering the 11 areas being negotiated.
The talks resume in London on March 18.
Britain spent more than £4 billion of taxpayers’ money preparing for Brexit. The National Audit Office found that since the 2016 referendum, the Government spent at least £4.4billion on staffing, infrastructure and external advice.