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LAST UPDATE | 15 Oct 2020
EUROPEAN LEADERS HAVE demanded Britain give ground on far trade rules to unblock stalled post-Brexit negotiations, angering London and putting the fate of the talks in jeopardy.
The 27 bloc leaders arrived for a summit in Brussels expressing cautious optimism but, in their written conclusions, urged the EU and its member states to step up preparations for a chaotic “no deal” exit.
Their calls for urgency were balanced however by an invitation that Britain keep talking next week in London and in Brussels the week after that.
“As of tomorrow I will be speaking with my counterpart David Frost. On Monday, we’ll be in London for the full week, including the weekend if necessary,” the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier said after addressing the leaders.
“That’s what I have proposed to the British team,” Barnier said.
The invite comes after a warning by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson that he could walk away from the negotiations unless the results of the summit pointed to a breakthrough.
The EU never recognised his deadline and in their conclusions put the onus on Johnson to rescue a deal as time runs out.
In an unusually testy tweet, the UK’s Frost said he was “disappointed” by the summit conclusions, underlining that they “no longer committed to working ‘intensively’ to reach a future partnership” as had been earlier promised.
Frost also scoffed at the EU’s charge that only Britain should budge, calling it “an unusual approach to conducting a negotiation”.
Johnson would decide his next move on Friday, he said.
‘Good compromise’
Tempers flared despite signals that the Europeans seemed to open to moving on one of their hard-held red lines, fishing.
President Emmanuel Macron of France hinted at possible compromise on the thorny issue of fishing rights, saying he was open to finding a “good compromise” that would ensure access for French fishermen to UK waters.
The insistence of France and other northern fishing nations on maintaining access to British waters has been a key stumbling block in the talks so far.
“We know that we will have to make an effort. This effort must be reasonable,” Barnier said.
Arriving at the summing this morning, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that Brexit is a chief concern in the talks and that fisheries if of particular importance for Ireland.
“I’m looking forward to an assessment by Michel Barnier, our chief negotiator in relation to the state of play of those talks right now,” he said.
The issues of considerable concern remain a level playing field that’s important for Europe, governance of any subsequent deal that will be arrived upon between the United Kingdom and Europe and clearly fisheries which is very important to us in Ireland. That our coastal communities are protected in an overall deal on Brexit through a sensible and fair fisheries deal.
The European leaders have tried to keep Brexit off the agenda at their recent summits but, in a sign that the topic was heating up, were ordered to leave their phones out of the room during the discussion.
The official statement offers little to Johnson, dropping the line in an earlier draft that called for Barnier to “intensify” his discussions with Frost.
During the call to Johnson on the eve of the crunch talks, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen warned that there was “still a lot of work ahead of us”, adding that Brussels wants a deal but “not at any price”.
In a surprising twist, as the summit got under way she was forced to leave the venue and self-isolate after a member of her office tested positive for coronavirus.
‘Approaching the runway’
Barnier said the talks could go on until the end of the October, the rough date set by the EU side in order to leave enough parliamentary time to ratify the deal before the Brexit transition expires on 31 December.
But the British side has accused Brussels of trying to force concessions by running down the clock.
Diplomats in recent days said there had been some movement from Britain, but not enough to warrant locking the negotiators into a so-called “diplomatic tunnel” to force the talks over the finish line.
Rules of fair competition
Britain left the European Union on 31 January, but Barnier and Frost have been locked in moths of inconclusive talks on a follow-on trade arrangement.
If no deal is reached, trade rules will revert to the bare bones of World Trade Organization regulations.
Both sides insist they are ready for this – and would prefer it to having to accept a bad deal – but experts forecast severe economic disruption.
Europe’s three main concerns are agreeing on the rules of fair competition, how these rules will be policed and securing access to UK waters for EU fishing fleets.
Britain wants to reassert sovereignty over its waters and refuse EU legal oversight over the deal – insisting it wants a simple trade deal of the kind the EU signed with Canada.
Brussels in turn stresses that Britain’s economy is far more integrated with and closer to the EU’s than Canada’s, and that its single market must be protected from British backsliding.
© – AFP 2020 with reporting by Rónán Duffy
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What UK is forgetting in all this, who will buy their fish if they dont do a deal, it’s a huge industry in UK and if they lose their closest markets it will be devastating for themselves.
@The Observer: what if the British retaliated to a negative trade deal by closing the straits of Gibraltar. Has anyone even considered this possibility.?
@John Brendan Mullen: Probably not because it’s as unlikely as that you yourself would be setting fire to the department store doors because last week’s offer is no longer valid.
@Mick Tobin: we’re talking about Boris Johnson here, not me. And I thought I was mad, yer man’s a complete fruitcake
@John Brendan Mullen: Johnson and (chiefly) Cummings have been banking on sowing division among the individual member states. This has not happened, and any disagreements that may be there are eclipsed by united opposition (extending beyond the EU) to their intention to break the withdrawal agreement. The British have been making fools of themselves on the diplomatic stage and they know the gamble has not been paying off. To then bring out the Royal Navy would finish off any remaining respect they have left. If Johnson even entertained this idea then it would be Cummings to point out the hand has already been overplayed.
@John Brendan Mullen: the lads on the other side might have something to say about that…..
@John Brendan Mullen: And in proper Columbo mode, just one more thing. How do you think the Americans are going to feel if a petty European trade conflict blocks their access to the Mediterranean and beyond? Not to mention that Chinese trade routes also get blocked. So in your hypothetical scenario, which will remain hypothetical, the British would end up pissing off all three trade blocs. It simply isn’t going to happen.
@John Brendan Mullen: they don’t want a trade deal and there would never be a blockade. The global retaliation to a UK retaliation would be catastrophic for the UK. Bj is a gobaloon but not a completely loopy one.
@The Observer: I’m pretty sure England know all the cons. The obviously see pros too. What they are (costs of remaining in the Eu, or something else) we don’t know.
@John Brendan Mullen: And how would they do that?
@John Brendan Mullen: then Spain chucks the million or so British expats out and seals the border with Gibraltar just to make the lives of the British citizens there difficult.
@John Brendan Mullen: doesn’t work like that bud. The straits are not exclusively British waters…..other side borders Spanish Morocco
@Hugh Corcoran: again, not going to happen.
Ask me why?
@Hugh Corcoran: Not “ex-pats”, immigrants. Being reminded of their actual legal classification irks the British, it’s a reminder that they’re not special.
@The Observer: everybody if the undercut the tariff rate.
@John Brendan Mullen: Ha! Ha! That has not been possible since the end of the nineteenth century. Do try to keep up. P.S. Thanks for bringing a smile to my face. Oh! Where have the glory days of Empire gone? Sing after me, Rule Britannia, rule Britannia. Britannia waives the rules.
@John Brendan Mullen: I don’t think Spain would like that!!
@John Brendan Mullen: What if the EU moved their business from the London Financial Hub to Brussels?? Be more costly to the Brits than losing the rights to a few smelly fish.
Perhaps the British should learn to appreciate the taste of their own fish.
Christ, just let the UK go already, were wasting too much time on this. As soon as we do, and they’ve no-one to argue with, we’ll all be better off.
@John Moylan: hopefully it puts pay to the Irish obsession with the UK.
@Jack Inman: Better trade routes with Roscoff in Brittany would strengthen the Celtic angle.
@Mick Tobin: Roscoff is only good for Spain, Portugal and Brittany of course
I suspect the EU is using the fishing demands as a bargaining chip. To “give in” towards the end of talks in the tunnel once the Brits agree to the Withdrawal Agreement as it currently stands. In other words, manufacturing a pseudo “win” for the Tories on fishing in return for everything else as agreed.
@LangerDan: I wouldn’t be so sure, this Island might have turned its back on the sea but the other EU nations understand the wealth that is out there.
The fishermen from Northern France and Belgium have a lot to loose here.
Since when does health advice recommend a smirk instead of a mask? Tomas Byrne should know better. Leading by example was never a FFG trait.
Whatever about Martin, Byrne is an insufrable toool. The words insufferable and tool are censored here when written together it appears lol. Can I call him a spanner? OK he’s an insufferable spanner of a tool.
The UK want a no deal. The call WTO an Australian deal these days. It’s a UK government that cannot admit any wrongs in any policy.
@Rory: ‘Australia style’ is peak Tory guff. No trade deal with EU will cause terrible harm to British business and livelihoods. Johnson knows this , and knows too that he can’t bat away the blame for no deal as its impact on the uk economy and day to day life will be immediate, obvious and very painful. He is absolutely desperate for a deal and the EU should turn the screw on him now . He’s just a bluffer.
@Paul Duffy: And the EU have just called his bluff. Their anger at Boris suddenly reneging on a done deal about NI in the last stages of negotiation had welded an anti British Coalition of EU states formerly Luke warm towards no deal. But now it’s on the cards. Boris try living with a no deal Brexit down in the British Parliament at present Your nightmare come true . Be careful what you ask for you might just get it!!! Boris . .
You’d think he’d be staying in the country considering we are fighting a pandemic and that NPHET are having a meeting this evening regarding introducing more restrictions and the cabinet can’t come to an official decision without him being there
A clown running the country
@Freddie Doyle: He absolutely has to be at the Brexit negotiations.
Are you for real?
@Freddie Doyle: don’t you realise that the other 26 heads of government who are attending also have a pandemic going on? That is not stopping them from attending. As the top item on the agenda is Brexit, I expect Martin to be there to represent our interests
@Freddie Doyle: Of course cabinet can make decisions without the Taoiseach being physically present. Where was Leo last March when the decision was made to close schools and colleges with 4hrs notice ?
English nationalists getting a spanking from some real politik, the Eton chaps suddenly realising that a few Latin bons mots count for nothing. 40 years of tabloid moaning coming home to roost
@DJ François: What British Nationalists have sown over the years in their newspapers they better be prepared to harvest their in own particular Grapes Of Wrath.
Its a wonder there is any fish left in the sea!
Demand. Why would one equal party demand something and expect to get it. I wonder.
@Vladimir Macro: An equal party? What world are you living in? The UK isn’t an equal of the EU at the trade talks, just as they weren’t the equal of Japan in those negotiations and got their ass handed to them. The UK will be approaching the negotiating table with many other countries from a position of weakness because that’s exactly where they’ve put themselves, a weak position.
@Diarmuid Hunt: weak position? The EU want their fishing grounds and need them to buy the EUs cars. Dont forget how indebted the EU block is with Italy and Greece bankrupt. The brits have lots to bargain for
@Vladimir Macro: Equal part ? Who ? Surely your not referring to Britain being an “equal” party to the other 27 country Trade Block? Are you as mad as Boris??
@Vladimir Macro: This is the kind of wishful thinking that has landed Britain up to its neck in Brown Windsor. The dream of spitting the EU by doing separate deals with Germany and Italy has been shown to be a false hope!!
Probably a lovely man, but seen as a clown by Eurocrats in the know.
Don’t you think we got better things to sought out? This EU problem can wait.
@Charles Shelly: course you do lol Europe will sit twiddling their thumbs until the Brits are ready for another merry go round of talks . Sure they will!!
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