EU and Britain blame each other for slow progress on Brexit deal
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Britain and the EU made scant progress towards a deal on future ties in talks last week, and their chief negotiators blamed each other for the stalemate as time ticks down to an end-of-year deadline.
“Those who were hoping for negotiations to move swiftly forward this week will have been disappointed,” the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said at a news conference after two full days of talks in Brussels.
His British counterpart, David Frost, said a deal on post-Brexit relations was “still possible” and was still London’s goal but would not be easy to achieve.
“There are ... significant areas which remain to be resolved, and even where there is a broad understanding between negotiators there is a lot of detail to work through,” Frost said. “Time is short for both sides.”
British officials said London was willing to talk about any issue and that the EU’s insistence that Britain must accept its position on state aid and fisheries meant Brussels was responsible for slowing the talks.
On January 31, Britain became the first country to leave the EU, which it joined in 1973.
The relationship between London and Brussels is now governed by a transition arrangement that keeps previous rules in place while they negotiate a new partnership, to be effective from 2021, on everything from trade and transport to energy and security.
The EU says Britain can go on trading freely with its lucrative single market of 450-million people only if London accepts “level playing field” rules to guarantee fair competition.
Without an agreement, trade and financial ties between the world’s fifth-largest economy and biggest trading bloc would break down, potentially deepening the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Disagreements on state-aid rules and fishing quotas have so far thwarted a deal, which the EU says must be in the making in time to be approved at an October 15-16 summit of the bloc’s 27 national leaders to enable ratification this year.
Beyond the biggest stumbling blocks, differences also linger in talks on migration, security, dispute-settling mechanisms, human rights guarantees and other areas.
With the coronavirus pandemic wreaking economic havoc and both sides of the Channel wanting to avoid an even deeper recession, EU sources were relatively upbeat in recent weeks that an agreement could be reached on time.
Barnier sounded downbeat on Friday, however, saying he was “disappointed and concerned” because British Prime Minister Boris ...
“Those who were hoping for negotiations to move swiftly forward this week will have been disappointed,” the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said at a news conference after two full days of talks in Brussels.
His British counterpart, David Frost, said a deal on post-Brexit relations was “still possible” and was still London’s goal but would not be easy to achieve.
“There are ... significant areas which remain to be resolved, and even where there is a broad understanding between negotiators there is a lot of detail to work through,” Frost said. “Time is short for both sides.”
British officials said London was willing to talk about any issue and that the EU’s insistence that Britain must accept its position on state aid and fisheries meant Brussels was responsible for slowing the talks.
On January 31, Britain became the first country to leave the EU, which it joined in 1973.
The relationship between London and Brussels is now governed by a transition arrangement that keeps previous rules in place while they negotiate a new partnership, to be effective from 2021, on everything from trade and transport to energy and security.
The EU says Britain can go on trading freely with its lucrative single market of 450-million people only if London accepts “level playing field” rules to guarantee fair competition.
Without an agreement, trade and financial ties between the world’s fifth-largest economy and biggest trading bloc would break down, potentially deepening the economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Disagreements on state-aid rules and fishing quotas have so far thwarted a deal, which the EU says must be in the making in time to be approved at an October 15-16 summit of the bloc’s 27 national leaders to enable ratification this year.
Beyond the biggest stumbling blocks, differences also linger in talks on migration, security, dispute-settling mechanisms, human rights guarantees and other areas.
With the coronavirus pandemic wreaking economic havoc and both sides of the Channel wanting to avoid an even deeper recession, EU sources were relatively upbeat in recent weeks that an agreement could be reached on time.
Barnier sounded downbeat on Friday, however, saying he was “disappointed and concerned” because British Prime Minister Boris ...
