British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said Britain and the European Union are heading into a “very significant” week as negotiations over a trade deal enter the final phase with serious differences still remaining. Talks continued even on a Sunday as both sides looked for a deal to prevent disruption to almost $1 trillion of trade at the end of December.
Raab said, “This is a very significant week, the last real major week, subject to any further postponement... we're down to really two basic issues.” The negotiations have so far failed to bridge differences on competition policy and the distribution of fishing rights. However, Britain's transitional EU exit agreement expires on December 31, and Britain says it will not seek any extension. “The bottom line is... in the ordinary course of things we need to get a deal done over the next week or maybe another couple of days beyond that,” Raab said.
Fishing rights have become a major topic of contention for both sides, despite accounting for only 0.1 per cent of the British economy. Britain has so far rejected EU proposals and remains adamant that as an independent nation it must have full control of its waters.
EU threatens to pull out of talks
Earlier, EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has warned his British counterpart David Frost that without a major negotiating shift, he will pull out of the Brexit negotiations. Barnier told his British counterpart that further negotiations would be pointless if the UK was not willing to compromise on the outstanding issues. During a speech in the European parliament last week, the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the EU was willing to be “creative” to get a deal with the UK but admitted an agreement was in the balance with “very little time ahead of us”.
“These are decisive days for negotiations with the United Kingdom,” Von der Leyen told MEPs. “But, frankly, I cannot tell you if in the end, there will be a deal. We will do all in our power to reach an agreement. We’re ready to be creative,” she said. “But we are not ready to put into question the integrity of the single market, the main safeguard for European prosperity and wealth.”
Von der Leyen said legal texts on judicial and social security coordination, trade in goods and services and transport were almost finalised. “However, there’s still three issues that can make the difference between a deal and no deal,” she added. She said fishing communities needed “predictability” from year to year over access to British waters, in a reference to Downing Street’s wish to hold annual negotiations over catches in UK seas, with the option of blocking access.
