Appeal to negotiate with Paris and Berlin
BORIS Johnson has made a last- minute appeal to negotiate directly with Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron to help broker a post- Brexit trade deal.
Despite being previously rebuffed by his German and French counterparts, the Prime Minister said he was “happy to talk and make progress” with the European powerhouses.
Mr Johnson was snubbed on Friday when he offered to travel to Berlin and Paris for face- toface talks. He was told all negotiations must go through the European Commission.
In Downing Street yesterday Mr Johnson made a fresh offer to talk with a no- deal exit looking most likely when the Brexit transition period ends on December 31.
He said: “We are always happy to talk and to make progress where we can.
“I do think, as I say, there is a deal to be done if our partners want to do it, but we remain very far apart on these key issues.
“I repeated my offer which is if it’s necessary to talk to other capitals then I’m very happy to do that.
“The Commission is very determined to keep the negotiations on the way that they have been done, between us and the Commission, and that’s fine.”
British negotiators believe a personality clash has compounded matters because Mrs Merkel does not trust the “libertine” Mr Johnson.
A source said the German chancellor was “determined to make Britain crawl across broken glass” rather than reach any compromise.
The Prime Minister and Mr Macron have struck up a good relationship in the past 18 months. But the French president appeared to scupper any chance of a deal during an EU summit on Friday by stubbornly sticking to his hardline stance of demanding access to British fishing waters for years to come.
He said: “I’m not asking to have my cake and eat it, no.
“All I want is a cake that’s worth its weight. Because I won’t give up my share of it either.”
Responding to claims she wanted to make Britain crawl across broken glass, Mrs Merkel said: “That’s good to know. Look, I haven’t done any negotiating at all and I’m not negotiating anything. The European Commission is conducting the negotiations – the Commission president, with Boris Johnson and Michel Barnier – on behalf of us all. Her negotiating position hasn’t changed at all.
“It’s very clear that the negotiations are not straightforward.
“Britain is leaving the single market and as it does so you have to make sure that as the legal situations in Britain and the EU develop further apart over time you still have fair terms of competition.”
‘ The German chancellor is determined to make Britain crawl across broken glass’