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Boris Johnson has spoken with European Council President Charles Michel amid signs Britain is ready to engage in one of the most important areas of disagreement in talks about its future relationship with the EU. Mr Michel said after the call that the EU wanted a deal “but not at any cost”, adding that it was “time for the UK to put its cards on the table”.
The call came as Britain’s chief negotiator David Frost noted that the two sides had become close when it came to state aid or controlling subsidies to companies.
“After a long period in which we have made little progress on subsidy policy, we are having somewhat more constructive discussions on that issue, although unfortunately the gap between us is still quite wide and there is much work to be done,” he said. told the EU committee of the House of Lords.
“We are starting a discussion, is it possible to go beyond what is normal in a FTA? [free trade agreement] and agree on some provisions that shape and condition the subsidy policy of both parties ”.
So far, the UK has refused to offer more than the smallest detail about its planned subsidy scheme after the post-Brexit transition period ends on December 31. The EU wants the parameters of that policy to be included in the deal, along with the terms of an independent British regulator and a dispute resolution mechanism between the UK and the EU.
Dispute resolution measures
Lord Frost said Britain would not write “lengthy text detailing how we design our system” in a treaty with the EU, but said Britain could benefit from dispute resolution measures with the EU on state aid.
“I can see that we are ready to use them as much as the EU in the future. Other EU countries subsidize quite often more than we do and that could definitely have an impact on us, ”he said.
He noted that France and Germany historically had subsidized companies much more than Britain during their membership in the EU.
“It still seems a bit strange to me that this problem has become so important given the antecedents on both sides, but there we are. We will be in a new situation after the transition and the EU must draw conclusions about what it wants, ”he said.
“If we can satisfy that, I don’t know yet. It’s quite difficult to agree on how much detail you want to see. “
Legal action
Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove told the committee that he understood why the EU was taking legal action against Britain over the Internal Market Act, which would allow ministers to nullify parts of the withdrawal agreement. He did not rule out removing the treaty breach clauses from the bill if the joint committee overseeing the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol resolved issues of disagreement.
“We will wait and see what happens in the negotiations,” he said.
EU negotiators are in London this week for an informal round of talks with their British counterparts and formal negotiations will continue in Brussels next week before the October 15 European Council.
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