[ad_1]
London – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will intervene in Brexit negotiations for the first time since June, when he holds talks on Saturday with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in a bid to unlock a deal.
The prime minister and the head of the EU will discuss how the two sides can reach an agreement on their future trade and security partnership and what commitments they are willing to make, a move seen by officials close to the negotiations as a positive step towards forward that could allow for more intensive conversations in the coming days.
While the final round of negotiations scheduled to end on Friday after only limited progress has been made, officials said the antagonism that ruined previous talks has dissipated in recent weeks and both sides intend to reach an agreement. They have made some headway on long-standing obstacles, and officials believe they are now in a position to allow Johnson and Von der Leyen to give a final push.
But they have not yet arrived and time is fast running out.
To be successful, Johnson and Von der Leyen will have to convince each other that they are ready to make a final leap that involves difficult compromises on both sides. If they can, the matter will return to the negotiating table to finalize the details.
The pound erased losses and rose as much as 0.5% to $ 1.2954 as of 9.44am in London in hopes that Johnson and Von der Leyen’s decision could fuel a breakthrough.
The EU’s top negotiator, Michel Barnier, met with his British counterpart, David Frost, on Friday as formal negotiations were coming to a close. Barnier will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Monday to discuss the situation.
This week some progress was made on two of the biggest obstacles to a deal: the UK’s state aid policy and the measures needed to enforce any deal, authorities said. But the two sides are still at odds over the access EU fishing vessels will have to UK waters, something that could still ruin an overall deal.
There is still “a lot to do,” UK local government secretary Robert Jenrick said on Friday. He reiterated that the government was willing to go ahead without an agreement if necessary after December 31.
“There is not much time now, so we urge the EU to show flexibility and pragmatism in these final stages of the talks,” Jenrick told BBC Radio 4. “There are still some very important problems to solve.”
In Brussels, officials hope that Johnson’s intervention will have the same effect as his call with Von der Leyen in June, when he resurrected negotiations leaving EU heads without question that a deal was his preferred option and that he understood what compromises were necessary. .
Johnson has said he wants a deal by Oct. 16, which would mean intensive joint drafting work, the so-called tunnel, which should begin immediately. The EU is more relaxed and is willing to allow the talks to continue for at least another month.
“The EU is ready to close a deal,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told reporters in Brussels on Thursday. “It helps if it’s done before the end of the year, but I’m not going to commit to a date, the sooner the better,” he said.
If the two sides fail to reach a trade agreement before the end of the year, when Britain leaves the single market and the EU customs union, millions of consumers and businesses will suffer the cost and disruption of tariffs and quotas and the relations between both parties could be poisoned. for a generation.
Bloomberg
[ad_2]
