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Ireland’s foreign minister has said he is optimistic a Brexit deal can be reached “in the next few days.”
As EU and UK negotiators continue talks in London, Simon Coveney flew to Paris to talk with his French counterpart, and fishing rights, one of the remaining obstacles in the talks, are expected to emerge.
“There is a good chance that we can reach an agreement in the next few days,” he told Irish radio Newstalk. “We are in the space of days, not weeks,” he added.
He was commenting just hours after EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier told envoys that the next 48 hours would be decisive.
Coveney warned that the next 48 hours could be bumpy. “Closing a negotiation as complex as this is never going to be easy. It’s going to be fraught with tension and confrontations as both parties try to strike a deal that is acceptable. “
However, the Irish Foreign Minister ruled out the possibility of talks quickly resuming next year if they collapse this week and the UK pulls out.
He said it was “a very dangerous assumption” due to the disruption and “political tension that will follow” any collapse in trade talks.
Waiting until 2021 “would mean significant disruption, costs, stress and blame games between Brussels and London.”
On Wednesday, Boris Johnson’s press secretary, Allegra Stratton, said the prime minister was hopeful but equally confident if the talks failed.
“He is optimistic, but he has also always said that he is confident and comfortable that we would be fine without a deal.
“If you can come to an agreement that’s good, but he’s also confident that we can move towards trade on what he calls Australian terms,” he said, referring to Johnson’s formulation for trade under the terms of the World Organization. of Commerce.
One of the toughest questions negotiators are grappling with is how to untangle the two parties’ fishing rights after 47 years of sharing waters.
Coveney will hold talks with the French Minister for European and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and the Minister of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune.
While fishing accounts for less than 0.1% of the British economy, the sector is emblematic of Brexit and Boris Johnson frequently states the importance of establishing sovereignty and control over who has access to British waters, including the Strait of Canal, where the French land 80% of the cod catch.
Johnson has lowered his Brexit demands by asking EU fishing fleets to hand over up to 60% of the value of the stocks they harvest from British waters, but this has been rejected by the EU, which was seeking to retain 80%.
The government will confirm later on Thursday that the new finance bill will be presented next week. Incendiary clauses on Northern Ireland are expected to be included if a Brexit deal is not reached next week.
Coveney said the threat of such legislation was “hardly consistent with a government seeking to build a positive partnership and future relationship.”
