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BRITISH PRIME MINISTER Boris Johnson has warned that reaching a Brexit deal was proving “very, very difficult” after two days of intense negotiations with the EU.
He said he was still hopeful that the two sides could reach a trade agreement, but that doing so remains a “very complicated” process.
Johnson is ready for face-to-face talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen after the negotiations left attempts by both sides to salvage a trade deal seem increasingly unlikely.
The two leaders agreed to meet in Brussels after a long phone call last night, the second in 48 hours, to assess the faltering negotiations.
Wednesday is believed to be the most likely day for their meeting, ahead of a crucial EU summit on Thursday, when the leaders of the 27 member states will vote on a deal if a deal is reached.
Johnson said he hoped the “power of sweet reason” would triumph, but Brussels had to accept that there were limits to the terms the UK would be willing to accept.
Talks have failed over issues of fishing rights, “level playing field” measures aimed at preventing the UK from undermining the EU on state rules and subsidies, and how any deal will be governed.
“Our friends have just understood that the UK has left the EU in order to exercise democratic control over the way we do things,” Johnson said in a message this morning.
“There is also the issue of fishing, where we are still very far away. But hope is eternal, I will do my best to fix it if we can. “
Johnson’s trip to Brussels is seen as a watershed moment for the process after months of talks led by the EU’s David Frost and Michel Barnier.
The meeting will be the first time he has met von der Leyen in person since January, in a sign that talks are intensifying, and will come after the two acknowledge that significant differences remain between the two sides.
“We agreed that the conditions do not exist to finalize an agreement, due to the significant differences that remain in three critical issues: level playing field, governance and fisheries,” a joint statement said last night.
“We ask our chief negotiators and their teams to prepare an overview of the remaining differences for discussion at a physical meeting in Brussels in the coming days.”
A UK government source said last night that “no tangible progress had been made” during negotiations between EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier and his British counterpart David Frost.
The same source described the process as “very complicated” and added that it “must now continue politically” with a warning that the talks could still collapse.
Johnson insisted the UK “will prosper tremendously” with or without a trade deal with the European Union, despite grim warnings from the budget regulator and the Bank of England governor about the impact.
Barnier tweeted this afternoon that the EU would “never sacrifice our future for the present” as the stalemate continued.
Lonoon also insisted that talks on a trade deal between the UK and the EU would not continue next year after Brussels appeared to leave the door open for further negotiations.
However, a Johnson spokesperson did not rule out MPs sitting down over the Christmas period to vote on any deal if it passed this week.
Problems and solutions
Negotiations resumed in Brussels on Sunday after Johnson and von der Leyen gave the green light to resume talks during a phone call on Saturday.
Trade talks remain stalled with the risk of a no-deal scenario remaining a possibility.
Both parties hope to establish a trade relationship without tariffs and zero quotas in hopes of avoiding major disruptions from January 1.
The Times reported that fisheries negotiations have remained stalled over the length of the transition period for European fishermen to adjust to agreed changes in fishing rights.
The newspaper said the EU wants a 10-year grace period, while the UK wants it to be reduced to three years.
The UK believes a level playing field would have an impact on its post-Brexit sovereignty, while the EU believes it should protect the standards of its single market.
In RTÉ’s Six One News yesterday, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said that new problems had appeared rather than solutions in relation to fishing.
Earlier yesterday, he described Barnier’s outlook for a possible deal as “very bleak.”
Despite the progress made in recent weeks on most controversial issues, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said today that the talks remain “very challenging”, adding that it would be a “significant failure” if a trade deal is not reached.
Health Minister Matt Hancock said this morning that the UK was ready to proceed without a deal, if what the EU decided was a no-deal scenario.
Barnier reportedly told MEPs that the deadline for successful talks is Wednesday, but Downing Street said he was prepared to continue talks “as long as we have time available”, allowing the possibility of a deal being reached. Thursday.
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The Taoiseach will travel to Brussels on Wednesday night to attend the crucial EU summit the following day, where any of the leaders of the 27 member states can veto a final trade deal.
However, more positive news emerged this afternoon when it was announced that the UK and the EU had reached an agreement in principle on post-Brexit trade-related issues with Northern Ireland.
It follows a meeting between the Cabinet Minister, Micheal Gove, and the Vice President of the European Commission, Maros Sefcovic, yesterday.
It means that the UK is ready to remove controversial clauses in the internal market bill that would have denied the EU a voice in future trade deals between the North and Ireland.
The news came despite MPs yesterday voting in the House of Commons to reinsert the clauses into the bill after they were removed by the House of Lords.
With a Press Association report.
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