Brexit: UK chief negotiator 'disappointed' as EU fails to commit to intensified trade talks
By James Crisp, Brussels Correspondent 15 October 2020 • 7:42pm
Lord Frost accused Brussels of 'an unusual approach to conducting a negotiation'
Britain's chief negotiator said he was "disappointed" that European Union leaders dropped their commitment to intensified trade negotiations at a Brussels summit on Thursday night.
On Friday, Boris Johnson will make a statement about whether he will carry out his threat to walk out of trade talks and prepare to trade on WTO terms with the EU from January 1 after the end of the transition period.
Chief negotiator Lord Frost said he was "surprised [the] EU is no longer committed to working 'intensively' to reach a trade agreement" and accused Brussels of "an unusual approach to conducting a negotiation".
EU leaders said the UK had to make "the necessary moves to make an agreement possible" and concede on fishing, the "level playing field" guarantees and the enforcement of the deal at a summit held on Mr Johnson's October 15 deadline for a deal "to be in sight".
Lord Frost, whose advice will be influential in Mr Johnson's final decision, tweeted that he was "also surprised by suggestion that to get an agreement all future moves must come from the UK".
Rather than give in to the Prime Minister's demands for daily talks, EU leaders called in a statement for negotiation to "continue" and urged the European Commission to step up no-deal planning. Earlier drafts of the summit conclusions had demanded "intensified negotiations" before the EU's deadline of the end of October, but that was watered down.
Michel Barnier, the EU's chief negotiator, attempted to mitigate the damage and said he would meet British negotiators in London next week. UK sources said that was still to be confirmed.
"The negotiations aren't over. We want to give these negotiations every chance to be successful. I shall say to David Frost we are prepared to speed up negotiations in the next few days," Mr Barnier said.
Emmanuel Macron has warned that he would never sacrifice French fishermen for a trade deal. The French president demanded continued access to UK waters next year and said the UK had to submit to the bloc's "conditions". "We didn't choose Brexit," he said. "It's the British people's choice."
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said: "We want a deal, but obviously not at any price. It has to be a fair agreement that serves the interests of both sides. This is worth every effort." German government sources have pointed out that a no-deal Brexit would mean the EU would lose all its fishing opportunities instead of just some.
Xavier Bettel, the prime minister of landlocked Luxembourg, said the EU was united behind Mr Macron's demands. "Fishing is not the main priority of my country, but it would be crazy to say we don't care," he said. "The EU is a club."
Ursula von der Leyen, who held talks with Mr Johnson on Wednesday night, said a lot of "good work" had been done in the talks so far. The European Commission president left the summit early to self-isolate after a member of her staff tested positive for coronavirus.
EU leaders discussed the Brexit negotiations in detail for two and a quarter hours, with each EU leader taking the floor in turns for their first full debate on the issue this year.
Charles Michel, the European Council president, repeated the bloc's demand for Britain to drop clauses in the Internal Market Bill, which overrides the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.
Senior EU diplomats predicted that if the UK made concessions another emergency summit could be called in mid-November to give political blessing to the agreement.