‘Little progress’ on trade deal with EU
BREXIT: The European Union’s chief negotiator has warned little progress had been made to secure a post-Brexit trade deal as the UK admitted talks would have to be intensified to reach an agreement.
Britain and the EU are to continue talks on the trade deal despite the latest round failing to break the deadlock.
THE EUROPEAN Union’s chief negotiator has warned little progress had been made to secure a post-Brexit trade deal as the UK admitted talks would have to be intensified to reach an agreement.
Britain and the EU are to continue negotiations on the trade deal despite the latest round of talks failing to break the deadlock.
Following four days of discussions by video link, the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier said yesterday that there had been “no significant areas of progress”.
His UK counterpart David Frost admitted both sides would have to “intensify and accelerate” the process if there was to be any chance of an agreement.
The talks had been intended to lay the ground for a high-level summit later this month to take stock of progress.
However, both sides suggested the unwieldy system of remote meetings – agreed due to the coronavirus outbreak – had reached its limit and that officials would need to start meeting again face to face if they were to move forward.
Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, Mr Barnier said he hoped arrangements could be in place by the end of the month.
“I think it will work better, it’ll be more effective and easier,” he said.
British officials said they remained confident the high-level meeting would still go ahead, although a date has yet to be agreed.
It is expected the summit – by video call – will involve Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, the European Council’s president, Charles Michel, and possibly the president of the European Parliament, David-Maria Sassoli.
British officials had previously indicated they regarded June as an “inflection point” in the talks, but a senior member of the negotiating team acknowledged the coronavirus outbreak meant there would be some delay.
However, he insisted the talks could not be allowed to drag on into the autumn without clear evidence that a deal was possible.
“We are not up for a long negotiation over the next months well into the autumn where nobody knows what is going to happen.
A senior member of the British negotiating team on trade deal talks with the EU.
October is too late for us to conclude this,” the official said.
“We need to work intensively now and into July to see if we can find the high-level trade-offs that unlock a deal within all our important negotiating parameters.”
As it stands, Britain will leave the EU single market when the current Brexit transition period comes to an end, at the end of the year, with nothing to replace it unless a deal is agreed.
Mr Barnier said the “door is still open” for the UK to seek an extension to the transition period to allow negotiations to continue – something which Mr Johnson has repeatedly ruled out.
However, the EU negotiator again accused the British side of backtracking on commitments made in the political declaration signed last year by the Prime Minister – including on continued access to UK fisheries.
“We cannot and will not accept this backtracking on the political declaration,” he said.
British officials acknowledged they had a “slightly different interpretation” of the declaration, which they said was meant to set the “parameters” for talks.
Business leaders in the UK expressed concern at the “worryingly slow” progress in negotiations. The CBI’s deputy director general, Josh Hardie, said an ambitious deal with the EU would be a “cornerstone” of the economic recovery following the pandemic.
We need to work intensively to see if we can find trade-offs.