Barnier accused of trying to act like Brexit ‘referee, not a player’ in trade talks

Britain wants negotiations with EU diplomats carried out in person after virtual meetings end in stalemate

BRITAIN is pushing for intensive faceto-face talks with EU negotiators, as UK sources claimed Michel Barnier was attempting to act like a “referee” rather than a “player on the pitch”.

UK negotiators are understood to have proposed in-person talks after the last round of virtual negotiators ended on Friday with no significant progress on the major obstacles of fishing rights and the level playing field guarantees.

After Mr Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, had accused Britain of “backtracking” from the political declaration agreed last year, a UK source said: “The

EU are unfairly characterising the political declaration. Michel Barnier seems to think he is the referee when actually he is a player on the pitch.”

It came as Britain prepared to pursue bilateral migration deals with individual EU countries.

Boris Johnson will hold talks with Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, Charles Michel, president of the European ouncil, and David Sassoli, president of the European Parliament, by video link in June. The meeting is to evaluate progress in the free trade talks, and is effectively the last chance for the UK to ask for an extension to the transition period, which the Prime Minister has vowed to never do. “It is difficult to see what changes the meeting might bring,” an EU diplomat said.

During last week’s talks, British negotiators demanded stronger legal protection for UK regional products such as Scottish whisky and salmon, as the Withdrawal Agreement includes protections for items from the EU, but not for those from Britain. A government source said: “We’ll now have to do our best to fix it, but we’re starting with a clear disadvantage.”

Britain will no longer be covered by the Dublin regulation once the Brexit transition period finishes at the end of the year. The EU law means an asylum seeker must claim asylum in the first EU country they arrive in.

British negotiators have put two replacement agreements on the table. One would allow the swift return of illegal migrants who have arrived in the UK from the EU. The other allows unaccompanied migrant children to be reunited with families in either the UK or EU.

The EU refused to negotiate on either text and had no plans to put forward an alternative at this stage, The

Sunday Telegraph understands. As a result, Britain is likely to be forced to strike bilateral deals with countries such as France and Belgium.