Britain though Officially left the EU In January, he didn’t quite quit. What he did was begin an 11-month transition period that ends at midnight on December 31st. It was to give both parties time for trade deals to continue the orderly movement of goods and services. It will avoid the last minute chaos and uncertainty that now unfolds.
The negotiators met in London over the weekend and were back in Brussels on Monday. “Time is running out,” said Jamie Davis, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said there were “significant differences” after the talks between them on Monday evening. But a Downing Street spokesman confirmed that Johnson would travel to the EU capital Brussels this weekend to try to close the deal.
If they fail, Britain and Europe will soon see new customs duties, tariffs, border checks and quotas on goods – and decades of reluctance to trade free, friction-free.
Britain collapsed without a deal, weakening even the open, invisible border between the European Union and Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland.
President-elect Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) have both warned Johnson not to do anything that could force the tight border to return to the island.
But the specific sticking points of the negotiations appear to be more narrow.
Both sides are arguing on the European issue Access to fish in British waters, An emotional issue that taps issues of sovereignty, yet the fisheries sector accounts for a small share of Britain’s gross domestic product.
The number of European fishing trawlers in the British Sea has been proposed to be gradually reduced. Should the faceout be three years (British proposal) or 10 years (French proposal)? Stay connected.
Europeans, too, are pushing Britain to maintain a “level playing field” to protect European workers from environmental protection, or state subsidies to British industries, in order to give European companies unfair advantages over their potential European competitors.
Meanwhile, the Johnson government on Monday pushed through its controversial internal markets bill through the House of Commons. The law is believed to have been created as a safety net to protect trade between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. But its provisions violate international law by replacing the original Brexit treaty signed last year.
On Monday, the government offered the Olive Branch and said it would remove the disputed clauses in the bill if both parties reached an understanding.
Ireland’s foreign secretary, Simon Cowney, described the overall mood as “very dark”.
The Irish minister told his state broadcaster, RT, “I prefer to give more positive news, but, at the moment, these negotiations seem to have stalled, and obstacles to progress are still very much in place.”
The British Foreign Office fee was a little low. Minister James cleverly told the BBC The UK will continue negotiations “as long as we have time or until we reach an understanding.” Negotiations “often go to the last minute of the last day,” he said.
“We are a global player. We are one of the largest economies in the world. We are a real reward for a lot of countries, “he said. ”
Diplomats in Brussels, which is facing a spiraling crisis, say Brexit was called upon long ago as a very early issue.
Amid fierce negotiations with its two EU members, Hungary and Poland, the difficult negotiations they are facing in Brussels this week are not over. Both countries, whose commitment to democracy is increasingly in vain, have vetoed the entire trillion EU budget because other members want to receive conditional funding to uphold the rule of law.
But even if Brexit is no longer at the top of the agenda, it is urgent. Any deal would require the approval of EU leaders and a handful of parliaments before 31 December.
Officials familiar with the EU talks said an agreement had been reached on Wednesday to suspend the talks regardless of their outcome, although such a deadline could easily be a bargaining chip.
A senior EU diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on condition of anonymity, said: “It simply came to our notice then.
Another senior diplomat noted on Monday that a summary of the remaining issues – the right to fisheries, state aid to industries and how the agency would implement the deal – could easily describe much of the last year of negotiations.
“If it sounds familiar to you, it’s because no significant progress has been made yet,” the diplomat said, referring to negotiations under the unnamed land rules.
Will Jennings, a professor of political science at the University of Southampton, said it was “very difficult” to know what was going on in the talks because “both sides are giving different storytelling briefings.”
He said it was a “strange political moment” because “it is crucial for decision-makers” but “the public seems to have almost moved on.”
He said with the European Union and British politicians “there is a tendency to take things to the brink and at the last minute.” . . Such students are giving term papers. But it was also difficult to know whether the government really wanted a deal.
“Ideas around Brexit wrap around sovereignty and take back control,” he said, adding that “there is a lot of tension around the integrity of Brexit and the strict settlement of international negotiations.”
Reports from Birnbum Riga, Latvia. Carla Adam in London and Quentin Ariz in Brussels contributed to this report.
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