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EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier is briefing EU member states on the situation in the Brexit negotiations that Taoiseach Micheál Martin described last night as razor’s edge.
Both teams continued discussions late into the night and will resume negotiations today. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will speak by phone later tonight.
Meanwhile, RTÉ News learned that the UK government will remove the controversial clauses of the Internal Market Act if a free trade agreement is reached and if parallel discussions on the Northern Ireland Protocol yield long-term solutions. and legally sound to the controversial aspects of the protocol.
As the negotiations enter their final days, major differences persist on the issues of fisheries and the so-called level playing field, including the creation of a shared set of rules on state subsidies.
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On fisheries, the UK has proposed an initial transfer of € 300 million in the value of the quota for whitefish and shrimp currently caught by European vessels in UK waters before a phase-in period of three years .
After that, access for EU ships would depend on annual negotiation. The EU has rejected this, arguing in favor of a phase-in period of ten years, at which point only 18% of the value of fish caught in UK waters will be transferred.
There are also deep divisions over a level playing field, especially around the so-called ratchet or evolution clauses.
This is where the EU expects both parties to develop their standards together so that neither party can gain a competitive advantage.
However, the UK insists that diverging from EU standards will be a sovereign right after Brexit.
If an agreement can be reached in the next few hours, a meeting of the EU-UK Joint Committee will be convened quickly.
It is understood that if the committee concludes a series of long-term solutions to the contentious aspects of the Northern Ireland Protocol, the UK will remove clauses from the Internal Market Bill that violate the protocol.
During a round of broadcast interviews, Britain’s Environment Secretary George Eustice warned that the UK could not accept any conditions that “fundamentally violate our sovereignty”.
“Where it gets difficult is when the EU starts saying things like, ‘Unless you clarify your agreement and regulations with us earlier, we reserve the right to withdraw certain parts of the agreement and undermine what has been agreed,” he told Sky . News.
Following their earlier call on Saturday, Johnson and von der Leyen acknowledged that there are still “serious differences” to be resolved over fisheries and the mechanism for resolving disputes, as well as competition rules.
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While the two sides have been circling the same issues for months, it is unclear whether the leaders’ intervention has created the political space for negotiators to finally fill the gap.
What he does remember is that time is running out quickly.
If there is no deal at the end of the Brexit transition period at the end of the month, then the UK will leave the single market and the Customs Union and start trading with the EU under the terms of the World Trade Organization, with the imposition of tariffs and quotas.
Before that, it must be ratified by both the Houses of Parliament in the UK and the European Parliament, as well as signed by EU leaders.
There were hopes that it could happen at a two-day summit in the Belgian capital starting Thursday, its last scheduled meeting of the year, but the schedule seems increasingly tight.
France has publicly warned that it will veto any deal if it is not satisfied with the terms, amid signs that President Emmanuel Macron is eager that Barnier is preparing to give up too much ground in his determination to strike a deal.
The mood around the negotiations is unlikely to improve with the British government’s decision to bring back to the Commons legislation allowing ministers to annul elements of the “divorce” deal with Brussels in violation of international law.
It means that today, when Mr Johnson and Mrs Von der Leyen are due to take the floor, MEPs will vote on repeal of the House of Lords amendments that removed the provisions of the UK Internal Market Bill relating to the Irish border.
On Wednesday MEPs will move on to consider the tax bill (post-transition period) containing other similar provisions, which have angered the EU.
Additional reporting PA
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