Tony Connelly @tconnellyRTE
Quick take from Brussels on @BorisJohnson’s No Deal threat:
Officials are relatively relaxed. Note @vonderleyen tweet saying that negotiations will resume on Monday, ie business as usual...
Ongoing bemusement over the line that the EU has refused to grant the UK a “Canada-style FTA”. Canada was never the model, say officials, as that would have meant a line by line negotiation on tariffs
That in turn would have required an extension to the transition, which Johnson refused
Also, officials point out that what the UK has sought goes beyond the Canada deal (professional qualifications, Mode 4 free movement for work reasons, procurement opportunities)
Finally, officials note that Johnson did not zero in on (or attack) the EU’s position on fisheries, level playing field and governance
And a follow up take from a UK source:
Source says the trade talks were effectively ended by the EU yesterday when they said they did not want to change their negotiating position.
Source says the EU can either fundamentally change its position, or UK leaves on Australian terms.
^Source adds that EU officials shd only come to London if they are prepared to discuss all issues, on the basis of legal texts, in an accelerated way, without the UK being required to make all the moves.
Or we can talk about flights, lorries etc^
If not there is no point coming.
Henry Tanguy @HenryTanguy
Your UK source, whoever it is, either is somewhat removed from the actual state of negotiations, as to which it is premature to discuss legal texts when key issues remain unresolved, or if not so removed, doesn't understand how to negotiate.
I think we can take from this that there will be talks on monday and someone is posturing to the media as Johnson said that no talks would happen after his deadline, except they are planned to.