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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will present his position on the future of the Brexit negotiations today.
Last night, there was a strong message from EU leaders in Brussels that the UK had to engage on key outstanding issues in order to reach a deal.
Last night UK chief negotiator David Frost said he was disappointed by the summit’s message, and Johnson had previously said that if there was no progress at the summit, the UK could walk away from the negotiations.
The message from the EU leaders was, if not intransigent, certainly firm.
In a final statement on Brexit, the European Council said that EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier should continue negotiations, but that the conditions for a deal had not yet been reached and that the UK should take action. necessary to make the agreement possible.
That drew a cold response from Frost, who said he was surprised by the idea that all the moves to reach a deal had to come from the UK.
However, there has been considerable irritation among European capitals that Johnson had set a unilateral summit deadline that was not agreed with the EU.
The outstanding issues remain fisheries, the so-called level playing field and governance, or how disputes will be resolved in the future.
French President Emmanuel Macron said that French fishermen would not be sacrificed to strike a trade deal and that France would be prepared to live without a no-deal outcome if necessary.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel took a more conciliatory tone, saying that while the UK had to compromise, the EU also had to make concessions and that both sides had their red lines.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said there was a clear message from leaders that the UK must remove the offending clauses from the Internal Market Bill, which would violate the Northern Ireland Protocol, if a general agreement on the future relationship is to be desired.
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