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EU leaders have welcomed the news that tense Brexit trade talks will continue next week, but insisted the bloc was united in its determination to protect its single market, as commentators lamented a British press. ” warrior and xenophobic “.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said UK and EU negotiators “will go the extra mile” to find a deal that guarantees Britain zero-tariff and zero-quota access to the EU domestic market. after what she described as a helpful phone call with Boris Johnson.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said every effort should be made to reach an agreement that avoids a chaotic and economically damaging non-agreement. “Every opportunity to reach an agreement is very welcome,” he said in Berlin.
Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said he believed a deal was “clearly very difficult” but was within reach as long as both sides were on edge.
With 19 days left for Britain to leave the EU single market at the end of the post-Brexit transition period, Coveney said that despite some comments to the contrary last week, he thought both sides wanted a deal. “It really needs to be done in the next few days,” he said.
Analysts weren’t convinced that the decision to keep talking was a real breakthrough. “It’s probably best not to read too much about the ‘useful’ nature of the phone call,” said Fabian Zuleeg of the Brussels-based Center for European Policy.
“Problem areas remain and no landing zone has been identified for an agreement. Negotiations must have a purpose, adding more days doesn’t really help. It seems likely that neither party wants to be blamed for the disagreement. “
The French daily Libération said the prospects for a deal had not been improved by the fact that the “usual xenophobia” and “hysteria” of the British tabloids, which this weekend included personal attacks on Merkel and a threat to “send gunboats “. he had “reached new heights of outrage.”
If no agreement is reached, channel-to-channel trading will revert to World Trade Organization rules from January. Tariffs would drive up prices, and customs and other border controls would ruin borders and disrupt supply chains across the continent. Relations between London and Brussels were likely to be poisoned for years to come.
The EU 27 has insisted since the day after Britain’s Brexit referendum in June 2016 that it would not allow the UK to “select” rights and obligations, and that if British companies had preferential access to the single market they would have to continue. to observe their rules.
By insisting on its right to full sovereignty after Brexit, the UK is reluctant to accept the EU’s demands for “a level playing field” and, in particular, to agree on a mechanism that would allow the bloc to retaliate if laws the UK and the EU diverged. in a way that would give British companies an unfair competitive advantage.
Spain’s EU and Foreign Affairs Minister Arancha González Laya said the UK’s insistence on asserting its sovereignty was an unnecessary obstacle in the talks.
“Trade agreements are not meant to assert sovereignty,” he told Sky News. “When you make a trade agreement, it is quite clear that you are a sovereign nation. The UK and the EU are interdependent, so let’s make a trade deal that manages that interdependence. “
Charles Michel, president of the European Council of Heads of State and Government of the EU, told France Inter radio on Sunday that the bloc will “remain calm” and do everything possible to make an agreement possible. “We must support a lot,” he said.
However, he stressed that it would be “impossible to put cigarette paper” among member states on the key issue. “We are reasonable,” Michel said. “We want to maintain close relations with Great Britain. But we want to preserve and protect the single market ”.
Commentators also expressed surprise at Johnson’s attempts, rejected by Paris and Berlin, to speak with Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron instead of the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier.
Catherine de Vries, a political scientist at Bocconi University in Italy, said the UK’s strategy appeared to be to “try to use the edge of the cliff to pit member states against each other”, using “the asymmetric consequences of Brexit as a means. to obtain concessions. ” The problem, he said, is that “it has not worked. And there is no plan B. “
