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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are expected to announce a post-Brexit deal after 24 hours of intense negotiations on the EU’s access to British fishing waters.
At 7.30 a.m. in Brussels, the main negotiators were still working to finalize the exact wording of the final treaty at the headquarters of the European Commission to seal an agreement on their future relationship after the end of the post-Brexit transition next week after the conversations through the night.
It is understood that agreement has been largely reached on the issues of fair competition and fishing rights.
Johnson has informed his cabinet.
Johnson is planning a press conference after speaking with Ms Von der Leyen, but with the conversations ongoing, the timing is uncertain.
Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said he believes there will be a Brexit deal on Christmas Eve despite a “last minute problem” related to the small text of a fishing agreement.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland, Mr. Coveney noted that the document included 2,000 pages of legal text. “The EU will insist on doing this absolutely well.
“I was hoping to be able to speak to you this morning in parallel with the big announcements to be made in both London and Brussels, but we are still looking forward to you later today.”
Johnson and von der Leyen have personally intervened in recent days, holding several phone conversations, in a final attempt to reach an agreement before the UK leaves the single market at the end of the month.
The final stretch of the talks focused on reaching a compromise on fish, a politically contentious issue in Britain and in several EU member states.
According to two people familiar with the matter, Johnson has accepted that the bloc’s share of catches in UK waters should fall by 25 per cent over a period of five and a half years.
Britain had initially sought an 80 percent reduction in just three years, but in recent days had offered a 30 percent reduction.
The bloc had refused to accept a more than 25 percent reduction in the value of fish caught, saying that even that was difficult for countries like France and Denmark to accept, according to officials with knowledge of the discussions.
When asked in Morning Ireland about the problems facing the Irish fishing industry, Mr Coveney said that a deal would not be a disaster for Irish fisheries.
However, he acknowledged that a Brexit deal was not going to end without some impact on fisheries, it was a matter of scope. Ireland had set clear goals to protect itself and hoped they would be achieved in the deal, he said.
Approval of the deal
If the EU ambassadors sign the deal on Thursday, the European Council can agree to apply the deal provisionally from January 1, pending European Parliament approval at the end of next month.
MPs will return to Westminster on December 30 to consider all stages of any necessary implementing legislation in a single day, and the House of Lords is expected to vote on it on the same day.
The European Research Group (ERG) of eurosceptic conservative advocates said late Wednesday that it would examine the details and legal text of any deal “as quickly as possible.” They will reconvene a “star chamber” of attorneys led by veteran Congressman Bill Cash, who delivered his verdict on Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement in 2019.
“As the new agreement is also very complex, the star chamber will examine it in detail, to make sure that its provisions actually protect the sovereignty of the UK, after we exit the transition period at the end of this year,” they said. in a sentence.
Although an agreement would guarantee tariff and quota free trade between Britain and the EU, Britain’s decision to abandon the single market and customs union means there will be friction and additional bureaucracy for importers and exporters.
The British pound extended its gains on Thursday and was up more than 0.6 percent against the dollar in early London trading at $ 1.3586. The British pound also strengthened against the euro and rose 0.3 percent to 89.90 pence. –Additional reports from Bloomberg and Reuters
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