[ad_1]
According to media reports, there is a movement in the stalled Brexit trade talks between the European Union and the UK. Bloomberg quotes Insider as saying that the British want to adapt to the EU on fisheries. Britain is demanding that the EU cut its catches in British waters by a third. The country had previously insisted that the EU should cut its catches by 60 percent.
The Guardian also reports on the offer, which gives hope for a deal before Christmas. It says there, based on an unspecified EU source, that the British are now only asking for a 35 percent reduction in the catch quota. The offer from the European Union is 25 percent.
Future fishing rights for EU fishers in British waters are a stumbling block in the stalled negotiations. Another is the EU’s demand for a level playing field.
A few days before the end of the Brexit transition phase, the room for maneuver to make Britain’s economic break with the European Union more or less smooth is narrowing. In talks between the two sides on a trade pact, no progress was seen on Monday. And even if a treaty is still successful, it can no longer be ratified. The final deadline set by the European Parliament on Sunday night has been missed.
Johnson calls Macron and hopes for a quick solution
Travel and transportation chaos is already looming in Britain. In recent days, long truck jams had accumulated on the British side of the Eurotunnel and in front of the ferry connections to the mainland, partly due to Christmas freight traffic, but partly also due to the uncertainty ahead of date. Brexit limit. Since the weekend, the EU has been sealing off the mutated and possibly particularly contagious corona virus in Britain.
France and other EU countries have closed their borders with the UK. Trucks can no longer cross the English Channel, where otherwise around 10,000 trucks typically cross from one side to the other in the run-up to Christmas.
After a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson hopes that freight traffic with the continent will resume as soon as possible. He was hopeful the problem could be resolved “in the next few hours,” Johnson said. “We want to solve the problem as quickly as possible.” It must be ensured that trucks can circulate “without covid” in both directions.
The prime minister tried to calm the population. “The vast majority of food, medicine and supplies are arriving as usual,” Johnson said. Only 20 percent of the goods would be traded through the Channel Port of Dover, which has been closed since Sunday night, and only affects goods that are accompanied by people, that is, trucks. . Truck congestion has also dropped significantly, Johnson emphasized.
British associations fear supply shortages. “This is a major supply route for fresh produce at this time of year,” the BRC trade association warned. Even on the mainland, few carriers would send their drivers to the UK with no guarantee that they can return. BRC called on the UK government and the EU to come up with a pragmatic solution.
It remains to be seen whether a Brexit trade pact will succeed in the last minute. A British government spokesman repeated Monday that talks remained difficult and that there were “significant differences” on key points, but that all possible solutions were tried.
