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The European Commission said it was still focused on reaching a new association agreement with Britain before the end of the year, and postponed a commitment to update contingency plans without an EU agreement.
“We are fully focused on the Brexit negotiations at the moment,” said a spokesman for the European Commission, Daniel Ferrie.
“If contingency measures are needed, they would be limited and tailored to the very specific circumstances that exist, and they would be adopted in time to ensure that we are fully prepared by January 1.”
Talks aimed at securing a post-Brexit trade deal resume today when EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier and his counterpart David Frost meet again in London.
With only a month to go in the transition period, talks remain stalled on fishing rights, described by Britain’s Foreign Minister Dominic Raab as a “major bone of contention”.
But he said there was “a deal to be done” after the EU showed progress on a so-called level playing field aimed at preventing unfair competition.
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Speaking yesterday, Mr Raab said this could be the last week of “substantive” negotiations and urged the EU to recognize the “point of principle” on British control of its waters.
He said: “By leaving the EU we will be an independent coastal state … and we have to be able to control our waters.”
Fishing rights, as well as the governance of any agreement and the “level playing field” have been the main obstacles preventing the two parties from reaching an agreement so far.
But with time short, the UK urges Brussels to give up fishing quotas so that a deal can be reached.
Without a deal, the UK will leave the single market and customs union on December 31 and trade under the terms of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
A 10th source said over the weekend that the bloc “must understand that we are not going to sell our sovereignty.”
Barnier and Frost resumed face-to-face talks in the capital on Saturday after negotiations stopped earlier this month when one of the EU team members tested positive for coronavirus.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said: “We have been saying for the past few weeks that this is the key week and we are saying the same thing again this week.”
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, he said: “I think maybe the difference is that the British side is saying it this week too. We are running out of time here.”
He said there is a month left before “there is a very fundamental change” in the way the EU and the UK trade and how the € 80 billion of trade via the Irish Sea will work, and regardless of reaching an agreement, there will be significant change and disruption, which an agreement would help limit.
Minister Coveney said no one is questioning Britain’s control of its own waters, but the EU is saying that while the UK seeks access in “many markets”, there is a counter-question from the EU requesting access to fishing waters that fleets have historically had. access too.
This is, he said, a negotiation that requires a bit of give and take.
Minister Coveney said that Irish interests in British fishing waters are important and are about sustainably managed stocks.
He said he had faith that Barnier can negotiate a balanced deal that everyone can live with.
Additional Reuters reports
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