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The European parliament’s Sunday deadline may pass without an agreement on a post-Brexit trade and security deal, France’s European Affairs Minister Clément Beaune has said, as UK and EU negotiators continue to haggle over rights. fishing.
MEPs have said they will hold a consent vote on December 28 if the two sides agree to terms before midnight CET on Sunday, raising the stakes for a weekend deal.
But Beaune, a longtime Emmanuel Macron ally speaking on behalf of the French president on Brexit, said the French government will not rush to a deal in the next 48 hours.
“It would be normal not to say: well, it’s Sunday night, so let’s finish and sacrifice everything,” he said. “It can be difficult and sometimes difficult to understand, but it is necessary to take our time and, in any case, not sacrifice our interests under the pressure of a calendar.”
A deal could still be provisionally applied on January 1 if a deal is reached, with parliament holding a vote later in the month, but the European Commission is understood to be reluctant to take that step.
This process would also take up to a week, given the need for the treaty to be translated and analyzed in EU capitals. Its chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, told MEPs on Thursday that a short period of no trade and security deals may be necessary as a result if the talks drag on until Christmas.
Since neither alternative seems acceptable, the EU side is willing to try to close the deal this weekend, but the two sides continue to struggle to find a compromise on access to British seas for the European fishing fleet.
The annual turnover of fish in British waters is about 850 million euros, of which 650 million correspond to the member states of the EU. The prime minister was presented with the latest offer from the EU to deliver more than 25% of its catch by value (162.5 million euros a year) to UK vessels.
The UK insists that the EU should get closer to its repatriation demand of 60% of the current catch, worth around 390 million euros a year.
The UK also wants to restrict a phase-in period for the new deals to three years instead of the seven more recently proposed by Brussels.
Downing Street is further resisting the EU’s demand to be able to apply tariffs on British goods in the event that the government closes access to UK seas sometime after the transition period.
Around 75% of UK fish exports, including the most valuable species such as herring, cod, shellfish, mackerel and salmon, go to the EU market.
Johnson wants to keep the six to 12 nautical mile zone off the British coast, fished for centuries by French and Belgian vessels, exclusively for UK-flagged vessels.
The prime minister asked the EU on Friday to present a proposed deal. “Our door is open, we will continue talking, but I have to say that things are looking difficult,” he said. “We hope that our friends in the EU make sense and come to the table with something themselves, because that’s where we really are.”
Barnier has complained that the UK believes it is owed a concession on access to fishing having accepted the need for an “evolution clause” in the EU and UK standards in the treaty. “This is not how it works,” he said.
The evolution clause opens up the possibility of the unilateral application of rates in the event of divergence in environmental, labor or social regulations that put one of the parties at a competitive disadvantage.
A UK government source said a no-deal outcome was still the most likely. “Negotiations continue, but we stay away. We will leave no stone unturned, but given the current situation, it seems more likely that we will leave the transition period in Australian terms, “said the source.
