BRUSSELS, Oct 16, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – European leaders on Thursday demanded
Britain urgently give ground on fair 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 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’ –
German Chancellor Angela Merkel appeared to take the criticism on board and
after the summit underlined that it was up to the EU to make compromises too.
“We have asked Great Britain to continue to be willing to compromise
towards an agreement. Of course, this also means that we have to make
compromises,” Merkel said.
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, 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.
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 and even dropped 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.
Barnier said the talks could go on until the end of the October, the
approximate date set by the EU side in order to leave enough parliamentary
time to ratify the deal before the Brexit transition expires on December 31.
But London has accused Brussels of trying to force concessions by running
down the clock.
– Rules of fair competition –
Britain left the European Union on January 31, but Barnier and Frost have
been locked in months 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.