New bid to break Brexit deadlock
Talks extended till October as Barnier says deal ‘unlikely’
BREXIT talks have been extended until October in a bid to break the deadlock.
The latest round of discussions broke up yesterday with the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier warning that the lack of progress meant a deal was now becoming ‘unlikely’.
The UK’s chief negotiator David Frost also struck a cautious note publicly, saying ‘considerable gaps remain in the most difficult areas’. A senior UK source involved in the negotiations acknowledged that the two sides had reached an impasse over the key areas of fishing rights and the EU’s demand for a so-called ‘level playing field’.
However the source said there had been ‘a lot of progress’ in many areas, including the EU softening its demand that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) must have the final say in any dispute.
The source said there remained ‘a real possibility we could get a deal in September’, provided the EU finally accepts the UK’s right to emerge as a fully sovereign state.
In a sign of hope, Downing Street yesterday confirmed that talks which were due to end in the middle of next month would now continue until the end of September in the hope of finding a deal.
But No 10 made clear that talks will not be able to ‘drag on’ past October because of the need to give firms time to prepare for the end of the transition period on December 31.
Back in January the Government had threatened to walk away from the talks in June if the ‘outline’ of a deal was not in place.
But despite the continuing stalemate on key issues, Mr Frost has persuaded Boris Johnson there is enough hope of a deal to make it worth continuing. The British chief negotiator yesterday said it was ‘unfortunately clear’ that an outline agreement was still not in place.
But he said the EU had ‘listened to the UK on some of the issues most important to us, notably on the role of the ECJ’.
Mr Frost said in return the UK was now ‘ready to consider’ the EU’s demand for an overarching agreement rather than a series of mini-deals, where Brussels fears Britain could ‘cherry pick’.
UK sources said negotiators would continue talks aimed at bringing the two sides as close as possible by September.
But they acknowledged it may need an injection of political impetus to break the deadlock on fishing and the level playing field.
And there is concern that EU leaders, including Germany’s Angela Merkel, remain disengaged because of the pandemic. Mr Barnier gave a gloomy assessment yesterday following the latest round of talks in London.
He said the ‘time for answers is quickly running out’ and blamed the UK for the lack of progress.
He added: ‘By its current refusal to commit to the condition of open and fair competition, and to a balanced agreement on fisheries, the UK makes a trade agreement at this point unlikely.’
Mr Barnier said failure to strike a deal by the end of this year would result in ‘far more friction’ for firms trading across the Channel, including the introduction of tariffs and quotas. ‘This is the truth of Brexit,’ he added.
He voiced frustration over the UK’s failure to publish its plans for a post-Brexit system of state aid – the rules that allow governments to invest in and bail out businesses.
State aid plans are the subject of a fierce debate within Government, with some ministers, and the PM’s chief aide Dominic Cummings, wanting the freedom to take a much more interventionist approach than the Treasury.
A UK source said the details of the scheme were not relevant to the Brexit negotiations, adding: ‘We are not going to align on state aid – otherwise, what is the point of Brexit?’
Responding to Mr Barnier’s comments, the Prime Minister said last night: ‘I think there’s every reason for us to be very optimistic about getting a deal.’ Today marks the first anniversary of Mr Johnson’s entry into Number 10, when he promised to get Bre xit done.
‘Time for answers is running out’