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The cables between London and Brussels were hot Monday night. The president of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen (62), and the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson (56), spoke by phone for more than an hour to negotiate new relations.
Britain left the EU on January 31 this year. However, a transition period will be extended until the end of 2020, during which the Kingdom will remain in the EU internal market and in the customs union. The big question now is: what will happen on January 1, 2021?
I wait only for a short time
Hope was kindled for a short time on Monday when it was announced that London would deactivate or even remove controversial clauses from the bill in the Single Market Act criticized by the EU.
With the Single Market Act, Boris Johnson wants to avoid border controls between the British province of Northern Ireland and the rest of Britain if there is no free trade agreement with the EU.
But it was precisely these controls in the Irish Sea that his government approved in an agreement with the EU in January. These controls would make it possible for there to be no controls between Northern Ireland and Ireland, a member of the EU. Almost a hundred years ago, a violent civil war broke out on this inner border of Ireland, which remains a burden on Irish politics today and the outbreak of which must be avoided by all means.
Only time until Wednesday
But even if London gave in to the Single Market Act, the hurdles would not be removed. The rights of EU fishermen in British waters, which is especially important for the French, the conditions of fair competition and the rules to sanction violations of the agreement are also a matter of discussion.
If there was no agreement, there would be tariffs and other trade barriers in the New Year. In the event of a no-deal Brexit, the economy on both sides of the English Channel anticipates serious disruptions. Associations warn of food and medicine shortages. It is feared that there will be miles of traffic jam inside the Dover ferry terminal and the entrance to the Channel Tunnel at Folkestone.
Time is running out. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier (69) said on Monday that negotiations could only take place until Wednesday at the latest, because the EU summit will take place on Thursday and Friday. But after the Monday night phone call, the EU Commission announced that Johnson would travel to Brussels in the next few days to clear up the toughest questions with von der Leyen.
The British Prime Minister exhausts it again: the discussions on the future relationship between Brussels and London could be extended again, it should be the last.
