Brexit talks (and halibut dinner) raise hopes of deal over fishing

THE chief Brexit negotiators for the UK and EU sat down to a halibut dinner last night as there were signals the bloc could blink first on fishing rights.

David Frost and Michel Barnier held a private dinner at No10 as they prepared to begin a round of talks on a trade deal.

The discussion will focus on several sticking points – one of which is the EU’s access to UK waters at the end of the transition period.

The Prime Minister was not expected to attend the dinner. Mr Barnier said yesterday the EU is ‘doing everything to succeed’ in reaching an agreement ‘but not at any price’.

He posted a message on Twitter showing himself and aides wearing face masks on the train to London. ‘We are engaging constructively and I look forward to equivalent engagement from the UK this week,’ he said.

The PM’s official spokesman said that while the talks are ‘informal’, discussions are likely to ‘cover everything from what the EU calls the level playing field through to governance structures’.

No ministers will be present at the dinner but ‘one or two’ officials from each side may attend and social distancing rules will be obeyed.

The two negotiators will be joined by their teams for further talks on Wednesday. Last week, discussions between the two sides on a post-Brexit trade deal broke up early with ‘significant differences’ remaining. It had been hoped the face-to-face meetings – agreed after a conference call last month between Boris Johnson and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen –would inject new momentum into the process.

The PM has been adamant that he will not allow the discussions to drag on into the autumn, arguing that British businesses and citizens need certainty.

If the two sides are unable to reach a deal by the end of the Brexit transition period at the end of the year, it will mean Britain leaving the single market and the customs union without any agreement on future access.

Yesterday, however, there were suggestions that the EU may compromise on UK demands that post-Brexit fishing opportunities be divided using a method that reflects the number of fish in UK waters, rather than the EU’s Common Fisheries Policy.

Mr Barnier said Brussels could agree to the use of zonal attachment – a key British request – if it was coupled with other factors such as the economic impact on coastal communities, according to the Daily Telegraph.