Is EU fishing for No Deal?
BRITISH negotiators claim EU obstinacy means trade talks will time out next month – resulting in a No Deal Brexit.
They say Brussels is refusing to allow progress unless the UK agrees to its “obsessions” on fishing and state subsidies.
The warning from Britain’s team led by David Frost comes ahead of another crucial week of talks.
The EU has been accused of only being interested in “trying to take the moral high ground” rather than “knuckle down” to make a deal.
Brussels negotiators led by Michel Barnier were accused of blocking the writing of complex legal texts on areas of agreement to allow for trade in goods and services unless Britain agrees to their “unreasonable obsessions”. PM Boris Johnson has warned a deal must be agreed by the end of next month or he will end talks and go for no deal at the end of the transition period on December 31.
This, according to Brexiteers, would mean the EU losing out on the UK’S £39billion divorce bill.
The Government has made it clear that the EU demands on access to fishing waters and forcing Britain to abide by single market rules are unacceptable.
And former Brexit minister and European Research Group deputy chairman David Jones MP has warned any compromise in these areas will hurt the Conservatives in red wall seats won in December.
He wrote: “Last year’s election presented a very clear, unambiguous message to the Conservative Party – secure a strong Brexit deal and leave the European Union if you want power in Westminster.
“The voters who abandoned Labour in its northern heartlands in December 2019, and swung behind the Tories, did so in the expectation of a clean and final separation from Brussels and the diktats of EU Commissioners.”
Sources accused Brussels of failing to understand that Britain will be a sovereign country whatever happened.
In a dig at Theresa May’s government a senior Whitehall source said: “When talking to the previous government, the EU were dealing with a negotiating team that may have wanted Brexit in name only, with minimal changes. That is clearly not the case now.
“We are not up for continuing previous arrangements. When they understand that, it will be much easier to make progress.”
Mr Frost’s team have put forward a compromise with the EU on fishing based on the Norwegian precedent which recognises it as a sovereign coastal state with control over its own fishing waters.
A source close to Mr Frost said: “The EU knows the UK got a bad deal on fish when we joined.
“We need more realism from them on the scale of the change that results from our leaving the EU. This is not a request but will be the legal default under international law if no deal is reached before the transition period ends.”
Meanwhile, other EU trade deals including Canada do not tie the non-eu parties into single market rules on state aid.
The source suggested: “We will not accept single market-like rules when we are not asking to be a member of the single market.”
THEEU clearly believes that if it holds out on its ludicrous demands that Britain is tied permanently to its rules and hands over its fish then we will just give up for the sake of a trade deal.
Monsieur Barnier and Brussels are in for a shock because this country is ready and better prepared than the EU to go it alone.
Theresa May used to say “no deal is better than a bad deal” and in Mr Johnson we now actually have a Prime Minister who believes that.