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The European Union and Britain are making another attempt at a last-minute trade deal: negotiations will continue on Sunday despite big differences. This was announced by both parties after a phone call between EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday night.
Johnson and von der Leyen had recognized that the negotiations thus far had made progress on many points. However, “considerable differences” remained on three key issues: a level playing field, fishing and the instruments to punish violations of the proposed agreement.
“Both parties stressed that no agreement will be possible without resolving these points,” said a written statement. The differences are serious. However, it was agreed that the negotiating teams would resume their talks in Brussels on Sunday.
The SPD’s Brexit expert in the European Parliament, Bernd Lange, had told the dpa news agency before Johnson’s phone call with von der Leyen that the British side fundamentally rejects instruments to enforce a level playing field. But there could be no agreement at any price.
The competitive conditions include environmental, social and aid standards. Britain would like to have as few EU guidelines as possible; for Johnson, this is a question of sovereignty. The EU, on the other hand, wants to prevent British companies from gaining competitive advantages, especially since the desired trade agreement would allow British products to enter the EU market without paying and without quantity restrictions.
On the other hand, Brexit expert Lange saw opportunities to reach an agreement on the second major fisheries issue. This is the amount of fish that EU fishermen can catch in UK waters.
Especially for the coastal states of the EU France, Belgium, the Netherlands, but also Germany, fishing is of great political importance. French President Emmanuel Macron insisted once again this week on French fishermen’s access to British waters. He said that he would only accept a contract if the long-term interests of his country were safeguarded. That was understood as a veto threat.
On Friday night, chief negotiators Michel Barnier and David Frost broke off their talks after an intense week of negotiations, declaring that the conditions for a deal had not been met.
Britain left the EU at the end of January. The transitional phase of Brexit, during which largely the same rules apply as before, will end on December 31. In reality, both parties wanted to use this transition phase to negotiate a trade agreement. The talks have barely advanced for months. The time for a timely ratification of a possible agreement before January 1 is now extremely short.
If no agreement on a trade pact is reached in time, there is a risk of tariffs and high trade barriers between Britain and the EU from the turn of the year.
