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Negotiations between the United Kingdom and the European Union will continue beyond the deadline set for Sunday to try to reach an agreement that avoids a harmful change to the predetermined trade terms in three weeks.
“Despite the exhaustion after almost a year of negotiations, despite the fact that deadlines have been missed time and time again, we believe it is responsible at this time to go the extra mile,” a joint statement by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the President of the European Commission. Said Ursula von der Leyen.
“Consequently, we have instructed our negotiators to continue the talks and see if an agreement can be reached even at this late stage.”
A phone call between Johnson and von der Leyen followed to discuss the status of the talks. Both parties had indicated that Sunday would be decisive, as time was running out to secure and implement an agreement before January 1.
Failure to reach an agreement is predicted to lead to a widespread disruption of trade between the UK and the EU, with damage to Ireland’s economy secondary only to the impact on the UK itself.
Earlier, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said that the disagreements preventing an agreement were how to reach an agreement on access to British fishing waters and how to create the so-called “level playing field” to ensure fair competition. between companies.
He insisted that a political decision to alter negotiators’ red lines was the only thing that could unlock progress.
“What is ultimately required in this eleventh hour of the negotiation is to move the political deadlock. That can only happen at the level of the Prime Minister and Commissioner von der Leyen, ”Raab said.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin had said he “fervently” expected the talks to continue, describing a no-deal outcome as “very bad news for all of us” and “a terrible failure of the government” on both sides.
“With a little energy we have [to] focus on negotiating a deal, ”Martin told BBC television.
Many European capitals have become pessimistic about the prospects for a deal, and the European Commission this week launched contingency plans to keep planes flying and trucks driving through the Channel Tunnel, necessary because they don’t get to an agreement would mean that the existing legal agreements would be dissolved. overnight.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is received by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, at the Berlaymont building of the EU headquarters in Brussels on December 9. Photograph: Getty Images
In an interview on Sky News, Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya, former head of the International Trade Center, insisted that British sovereignty was not at issue in the talks.
“I have made many trade deals in my life and trade deals are not made to affirm one’s independence. They are made to manage our interdependence, ”said González Laya.
“This trade agreement that we are building after Brexit is not to assert the sovereignty of the country, trade agreements are not made to do that. It’s pretty clear that when you do a business deal, you are a sovereign nation. “
Night talks
Johnson and von der Leyen spoke by phone Sunday to decide whether to continue negotiations to reach a trade deal and avoid a damaging change to the predetermined terms.
The talks remain difficult, a British source said on Saturday, as the two sides sought a way to reconcile EU demands for guarantees of comparable standards in the UK in exchange for free access to the single market, with the wish of London that autonomy diverges.
The talks dragged on late into the night between the teams of Michel Barnier and David Frost in Brussels on Saturday and will now continue.
Britain’s transition period, during which it has largely held the same terms temporarily since leaving the bloc in January, will end on December 31 and, without a deal, the predetermined terms of the World Trade Organization will enter into force. force, including high tariffs on some products.
Both sides have previously said that the failure to reach a deal is now a more likely outcome than not, an outcome that is projected to shrink the British economy and hurt Irish exporters in particular, while also causing widespread disruption.
Negotiators have long struggled to reach agreement on the three sticking points of governance, fishing rights and the so-called level playing field, and the question of how to ensure fair competition in the future emerges as the biggest hurdle. as the conversations progress. its end.
Earlier on Saturday, confirmation from the British defense ministry that four Royal Navy gunboats have been put on standby to protect British waters from EU trawlers if there is no deal was greeted angrily by some senior conservatives. rank.
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