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It seems like deja vu, another crucial week with conversations focused on three themes: fisheries, fair competition and governance.
But with the key meeting of EU leaders at a council summit on Thursday, the majority agreed that there are only three or four days left to seal a deal.
“If the environment warms up again and great progress is made, and it’s just a matter of working out the details, you can always find more time,” environment secretary George Eustice told The Andrew Marr Show on BBC on Sunday.
“But unless we can resolve these fundamental divergences right now, we will have to take a position in the next few days,” he added.
Do you feel like not negotiating?
While most believe that no deal will be catastrophic for both parties, the threat persists, even as a strong negotiating tactic to say the least. The Sunday Times reported that 13 cabinet ministers, including eight remaining, were willing to support any deal.
Sources confirmed that “there will be very little pushback” from the cabinet if Boris Johnson opted not to reach an agreement and there were reports that Steve Baker, who led the rebellion against Theresa May’s agreement to remain in the customs union, is willing to lead the opposition if Hard Brexit supporters feel betrayed.
The Center for Brexit Policy, supported by one of Baker’s allies, Owen Paterson, is circulating a “Brexit deal scorecard” to help MPs decide whether any deal delivers on the manifesto’s promises.
The latest in fishing grounds
A breakthrough Sunday night it appears that all that remains is political approval, which is not guaranteed by the French threat to veto any deal. Details are not yet known, but the agreement will be based on quotas, access and a transition period for the sector. The EU wants a 10-year deal. Eustice told the BBC that the UK was “open” to a multi-year agreement that “may last three years.”
The ultimate on equal terms
The level playing field issues also need to be resolved, although Theresa May’s former special adviser for Europe, Raoul Ruparel, recently noted that both sides had “adopted somewhat ridiculous hard-line ideological positions” and the evolution of ratchet clauses designed to Ensuring a narrow gap between the rules on workers’ rights and environmental rights could be resolved, as the original EU proposal allowed the UK a veto on any future alignment changes.
The ultimate in dispute resolution
But there are also problems related to dispute resolution. While an independent arbitration process is expected, the UK has protested that Michel Barnier, the EU’s lead negotiator, presented a legal text granting the EU the right to “lightning fees” immediately imposed on the violator. This has been described as a political resolution to disputes, but carries the costly risks of “hit a mole” trade wars, according to Cambridge law professor Catherine Barnard.
