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Johnson has said that he believes a trade deal with the EU is unlikely and that the UK should now prepare to leave the single market and the bloc’s customs union by the end of the year without a new deal in place. Speaking from Downing Street in a televised address late last week, Johnson kept the door open for more talks, but blamed Brussels for refusing to “seriously negotiate” in recent months. He said he would always be ready to listen to EU negotiators if they returned to the UK with “a fundamental change in approach.”
Last month, the UK government set an October 15 deadline for a deal to be reached, or clearly in the offing, saying there would be no point in continuing the talks beyond this week without adequate progress. .
UK chief negotiator David Frost and his EU counterpart Michel Barnier will hold further talks.
However, after a summit with bloc leaders concluded on Friday, sticking points have become apparent in fisheries and a level playing field remains.
With tensions set to rise in the coming days, a recent report by an official close to the negotiations suggests that Johnson may have been right not to believe in Brussels’ “good faith,” urging the country to prepare for a no-deal deal. instead.
Caroline Bell argued that every step in the Brexit negotiation has been carefully orchestrated to undermine Johnson and lure him “into the tunnel of doom.”
She wrote: “The European Council conclusions on Brexit were totally predictable. The communiqué has been published in draft in the European press and has been widely followed in the media for the last two weeks. We knew that the Council would not reach any decision.” . on a trade agreement with the United Kingdom, but instead of listening to a balance of the progress in the talks from Michel Barnier. The UK’s lack of commitment would be duly deplored and the EU would redouble its unsustainable demands for full access to UK Waters, control of the UK economy through state aid legislation and judicial governance by the European Court. of Justice (ECJ) “.
Bell pointed out how the French have been very busy in recent weeks setting up exactly this scenario.
She explained: ‘They have repeatedly misrepresented the UK’s offer on fishing, which is, frankly, more than any EU state is entitled to expect, to try to affect compensation with the much larger issue of gain absolute dominance over the UK economy enforceable at the ECJ (‘governance’ is a polite cover for the kind of oversight the EU wants) Boris’s deadline for an acceptable outline of a clear deal by 15 October has been openly mocked.
“’We will continue talking until October 31,’ announced Michel Barnier.
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“This week, French Foreign Minister Yves Le Drian postponed the deadline until mid-November. Today, the French president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, seemed to suggest that an agreement could be reached at the midnight on December 31 “.
According to Bell, the thinking in Paris is clear: President Macron believes that Johnson’s willingness to extend the talks into the summer indicates that he is desperate to take the crumbs that fall from the EU table.
He has convinced the EU27 that the Prime Minister is bragging about abandoning the talks if there is no progress.
She added: “So the game plan is to fake your hoax with the expectation that the EU can extend the talks into mid-November and beyond, although Boris would immediately lose all credibility, both at home and abroad as well. like yours. Considerable influence in the negotiations. The EU would redouble its unreasonable demands, riddle him with taunts and insults, refuse to discuss any UK proposals or agree to legal text, and then offer a last-minute concession (like accepting our generous fishing proposals) while filling in the legal fine print on a level playing field and governance provisions with EU rules and judicial scrutiny that would paralyze us for all eternity.
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“If the prime minister did not accept any pig in a shove that has occurred with such a method, Macron would probably prefer not to reach an agreement, that way he can strengthen his position in the EU in the hope that we will be forced to kneel to the Bargaining Table sometime next year. Meanwhile, his audience ratings would improve (there’s nothing like a bit of British attack to fuel a French presidential campaign) and he would have seriously undermined German dominance in the EU by forcing Angela Merkel to swallow a strategy so that German companies would pay a very high price. So he would consider it a political victory, and for France, politics will always triumph over the economy. “
The official concluded for her article in Briefings for Britain: “Every step in the Brexit negotiation has been carefully orchestrated to undermine Boris Johnson and lure him into the tunnel of doom.
“It is a cleverly staged production, but nonetheless absurd.
“And he has played for too long. It is time for the prime minister to lower the curtain and end the talks now. If the EU27 really wants a deal, they will have a huge raid on each other and be back in no time. with some common sense and fresh proposals that respect the UK’s position as an independent country. If not, no deal is better than a bad deal. “
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