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UK’s Johnson, EU chief bid for Brexit breakthrough in call
LONDON, Dec 5, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson
and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen held emergency talks Saturday to try
to break the deadlock in post-Brexit trade deal negotiations as time
runs short for an agreement.
Details about the outcome of the crunch phone call — which began at
1630 GMT — were yet to emerge, with pressure intensifying to strike a
deal with just weeks left until the Brexit transition period ends on
December 31.
The political intervention follows UK and European Union envoys
pausing last-ditch talks late Friday and acknowledging that the
conditions for an agreement had not been met.
In a joint statement, top British negotiator David Frost and his
European counterpart Michel Barnier said “significant divergences”
remained over several key issues that have stalled talks since the
summer.
A deal is seen as essential to avoid deep disruption on both sides
— but especially in Britain — to economies already damaged by the
coronavirus pandemic.
EU Commission President von der Leyen was said to be in “constant
contact” with member state leaders, and was briefed by Barnier before
the conversation with Johnson.
The EU’s chief negotiator told reporters in London ahead of his
return to Brussels that his team would “keep calm, as always”.
“If there is still a way, we will see,” he added.
Johnson and von der Leyen last spoke on November 7, but a month
later Britain and the bloc remain divided over so-called level playing
field provisions, governance and fisheries.
A European source told AFP on Friday of “serious difficulties” at
this crucial late stage in the process, while UK government sources
told British media outlets the EU side was making “completely
unrealistic” demands.
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Johnson may also try to speak with other European leaders over the
weekend, including French President Emmanuel Macron, according to the
Financial Times.
Bloc leaders will hold a summit on Thursday, by which time many
expect to know whether reaching a Brexit deal is feasible.
“I would expect instructions for the negotiators to finish the talks
in a couple of days. But a breakdown also has a considerable chance,”
another European source said.
– ‘Failure of statecraft’ –
Britain formally left the EU in January, nearly four years after a
referendum on membership that divided the nation.
But it has remained bound by most of its rules until the end of the
year, as the two sides try to agree the exact nature of their future
relationship.
Without a deal, the bulk of cross-Channel trade will revert to World
Trade Organization terms, an unwanted return to tariffs and quotas
after almost five decades of deepening economic and political
integration.
Talks through this year have finalised most aspects of an agreement,
with Britain set to leave the EU single market and customs union, but
the most thorny issues have remain unresolved.
European capitals have remained remarkably united behind Barnier
through the fraught Brexit process, but some internal fractures have
now begun to surface.
France on Friday threatened to veto any deal that fails short of
their demands on ensuring fair trade and access to UK fishing waters.
Meanwhile a European diplomat told AFP that Belgium, the
Netherlands, Spain and Denmark share Paris’s concerns that the EU side
could give too much ground on rules to maintain competition.
In Britain, Johnson has insisted Britain will “prosper mightily”
whatever the outcome of the talks, but he will face severe political
and economic fallout if he cannot seal a deal.
“If we fail to get an agreement with the European Union, this will
be a serious failure of statecraft,” Conservative lawmaker Tom
Tugendhat, Chair of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told the
Lowy Institute in an interview published Saturday.
German MEP Manfred Weber, the head of the European Parliament’s
conservative EPP grouping, saying it was “now or never” for a deal.
“@BorisJohnson needs to make a choice between the ideology of
#Brexit and the realism of people’s daily lives,” he said on Twitter.
“In the middle of the Covid crisis we owe it to our citizens and
businesses to find an agreement.
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