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Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will hold talks on Saturday ahead of a potentially decisive week in the Brexit negotiations, amid growing concern in Brussels over a lack of progress.
UK sources downplayed expectations of a watershed moment, but with little time for parliamentary ratification, the phone call may prove the last chance for political intervention in the turbulent talks.
“The Prime Minister will speak to [Von der Leyen] tomorrow afternoon to take stock of the negotiations between the UK and the EU, ”said a Downing Street spokesman.
Johnson said he hoped a trade deal could be reached with the EU, but the UK was well prepared if end-stage talks failed. “I have high hopes that [get a deal]And, obviously, that depends on our friends and partners across the Channel. I think there is a deal to be made if they want to do it. If not, the country is, of course, very, very well prepared and, as I said before, we can do it very, very well in Australian terms. ”
Claims that Joe Biden’s expected victory in the US presidential election had sparked the meeting were dismissed by UK and EU sources as “implausible.”
Sources said the call was scheduled before election night and that uncertainty about the potential for a trade deal with the new US administration had little or no impact on the talks.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier returns to London for trade and security negotiations on Sunday.
The European Commission told EU diplomats representing the 27 member states on Friday that the next “important moment” would come late next week, with the return of Barnier.
Outstanding issues remain the level of access to UK waters provided to EU fishing fleets, fair competition rules for companies, including rules on domestic subsidies, and the final treaty mechanism to resolve future disputes. .
EU officials close to the negotiations lamented the particular lack of progress on the so-called level playing field provisions to ensure that neither side can deregulate to gain an advantage or unfairly subsidize businesses.
There remains a lack of agreement on how prohibitive the rules on internal subsidies should be in the future treaty.
Barnier told EU diplomats this week that the two sides were also struggling to agree on a “credible mechanism” to ensure that the social, environmental and labor standards of both sides are developed in parallel. “We are nowhere,” said a source.
The UK has agreed not to back down from the current level, but is resisting provisions that would bind the UK to the Brussels regulation in perpetuity. “The ideology is hard to beat,” said a source.
EU sources said they expected the UK government’s refusal to concede to be “risky” and “posturing” but feared the two sides were doomed to run out of time, with neither party willing to compromise.
David Frost, the UK’s chief negotiator, has been pushing for a “final arbitration” meeting between Johnson and Von der Leyen, much to Barnier’s frustration.
Barnier told diplomats this week that the gap between the two sides remained too wide on too many issues for a solution to be found at the time. He told MEPs at a meeting on Wednesday that “next week is really the last chance for the British to move.”
An EU official said Johnson had shown “no understanding of the details.”
If an agreement is possible, the 27 EU leaders are expected to be able to sign it in an upcoming conference call on November 19 or at a similar summit that is expected to be organized shortly thereafter. Sources suggested that an agreement needed to be reached before November 12-13 to allow the European Parliament to start its ratification process.
