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EU and UK officials must resume talks in Brussels to secure a post-Brexit trade deal.
Both sides have set tomorrow as the deadline to decide whether or not the talks should continue.
Britain’s Defense Ministry has said that four Royal Navy vessels have been put on hold to protect British waters in the event that there is no new agreement on fishing rights after December 31, when the fishing rights agreements are finalized. transition.
Four 80-meter armed vessels have been put on hold to protect British waters from EU trawlers in the event that there is no new agreement on fishing rights after December 31, when the transitional arrangements finalize.
The confirmation of the measure by the Ministry of Defense (MoD) comes as Boris Johnson and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, warned both parties that a no-deal outcome seemed more likely than an agreement in the negotiations. commercial.
Yesterday afternoon, Johnson met with Chief Minister Michael Gove, who is responsible for Brexit planning, and other officials to “assess” the government’s plans for a no-deal exit.
It follows reports that German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron rejected the prime minister three times this week after he tried to speak to them directly about stalled trade discussions.
Fishing has been one of the most contentious topics in the negotiations with the bloc, and France is reportedly not happy with the UK’s proposals to lower quotas for EU skippers and a short implementation period.
Reciprocal access to each other’s waters will end next year, but the two sides disagree on what will replace the current terms, which the UK fishing industry has long argued leaves them unchanged.
Brussels has called for the status quo on fishing rights to continue for 12 months in the event that no deal is reached, a request that appears to have been rejected after the government revealed plans to increase patrols.
According to the Times newspaper, ministers are poised to bolster patrol powers by introducing legislation that allows the Navy to board foreign vessels and arrest fishermen if there is no deal, in scenes reminiscent of the Cod Wars of the 1970s. .
The Guardian reported that the four Royal Navy ships prepared for fisheries surveillance are river patrol boats that are armed with machine guns, although the newspaper said no shots were expected to be needed.
Conservative MPs have been urging the prime minister to ensure that UK waters are properly protected in case the talks collapse.
Shrewsbury and Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski tweeted: “In case no agreement is reached with the EU on Sunday, we must receive absolute assurance from Boris Johnson that British naval forces will be deployed from 1 January to prevent illegal French fishing in our waters. “
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The Defense Ministry said the deployment of the ships had been agreed as part of planning for the end of the transition period.
A spokesperson said: “The Defense Ministry has done extensive planning and preparation to ensure that the defense is ready for a variety of scenarios by the end of the transition period.”
The Daily Mail reported that Wildcat and Merlin helicopters were also on standby to assist with policing the country’s territorial coastline.
The move is likely to be read in Brussels as a shot overboard, as negotiators get down to business in a bid to strike a deal this weekend after Johnson and von der Leyen agreed that a deal was needed. firm decision on talks for Sunday.
Chief negotiators Michel Barnier and David Frost are ready to speak over the weekend in Brussels.
Speaking to reporters during a visit to Blyth in Northumberland, Johnson said that fishing and the so-called level playing field “ratchet” that would bind the UK to future EU standards were the two main obstacles to a deal.
He said: “There’s the whole fish issue, where we have to be able to regain control of our waters. So there is a way to go, we are hopeful that progress can be made.”
“But I have to say, that from my point of view now, here in Blyth, it seems very, very likely that we will have to find a solution that I think would be wonderful for the UK, and we would be able to do exactly what we want from from January “.
Labor leader Keir Starmer, using Johnson’s own words from 2019 against him, told the Mirror that the collapse of negotiations with Brussels after promising to “end Brexit” in the general election would represent a “complete failure of the art of government. “.
Earlier in Brussels yesterday, Ms Von der Leyen said that the UK and the EU “have not yet found the solutions to bridge our differences” in fisheries.
The Commission President urged the government to “understand the legitimate expectations of the EU fishing fleets based on decades, and sometimes centuries, of access”.
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