Three weeks to save Brexit trade deal or delay end of transition
● Talks to be held by videolink as UK and EU rush to beat July deadline
The UK Government will press on with Brexit talks despite mounting pressure for an extension to the transition period, with London and Brussels agreeing a timetable for rapid-fire talks between now and June in a bid to salvage the process.
Three week-long rounds off talks will take place starting on Monday, 11 May and 1 June, with both sides agreeing the need for “real, tangible progress” before a deadline in July to decide whether to extend the transition and delay the end to EU law applying in the UK.
It was agreed that talks will be held remotely, after chief negotiators David Frost for the UK and Michel Barnier for the EU - both of whom have recovered from coronavirus symptoms - hammered out the schedule.
In a joint statement they said: “While this work has been useful to identify all major areas of divergence and convergence, the two sides agreed on the need to organise further negotiating rounds in order to make real, tangible progress in the negotiations by June. Given the ongoing coronavirus crisis, these negotiating rounds - the structure of which is set out in the terms of reference - will take place via video conference.”
A further meeting expected in June to review progress.
In a letter to Scottish Secretary Alister Jack, his new Labour opposite number Ian Murray warned it was “now impossible to secure a Brexit deal that protects businesses and workers before the end of the year”.
Mr Murray said: “I note that Scottish Conservative and Unionist leader Jackson Carlaw MSP has called for a ‘pragmatic response’. The pragmatic response for the UK Government is to urgently apply for an extension to the transition period. This is not a time for constitutional politics and business do not need any more uncertainty. The entire focus of all governments in the UK must be on working together to tackle the coronavirus outbreak and then dealing with its aftermath to ensure our economy recovers.
“I therefore hope you will support your party leader in Holyrood, and business leaders across the UK, and address this issue with your Cabinet colleagues at the earliest possible opportunity.”
Meanwhile, immigration experts have claimed gaps in government data are making it difficult to know whether the EU Settlement Scheme is working.
EU citizens have been asked to apply to the Home Office to stay in the UK after freedom of movement with the European Union ends on 31 December.
But without “significant investments in new official data, there will be no way of verifying whether it is reaching this goal”, the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford has warned in a report.
Snpmpstuartmcdonald said the report was “stark reminder that many people will lose their rights to remain in this, their home country, because they’ve been denied the support they needed or misunderstood their own immigration status”.