Boris Johnson told EU leaders they have until September to strike a deal amid fears they are ‘running down the clock’, as crucial Brexit talks are due to resume this week.
Britain has accused the European Union of trying to string out Brexit trade talks in the hope the UK will agree to its terms.
But the Prime Minister has warned that any delays from Brussels will not persuade the UK to extend the transition period past December 31.
Britain and the EU will attempt to revive the imperilled trade talks on Tuesday, entering a crucial week of negotiations that could mark the final hope for a deal.
Boris Johnson has told EU leaders they have until September to strike a deal, as Brexit talks are due to resume this week. Pictured, Boris Johnson speaks with Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel and other officials during a European Union Summit in Brussels in October 2019
Britain’s chief negotiator David Frost has warned EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier that the speed of trade deal talks this week needs to increase.
But French president Emmanuel Macron reportedly said he is too busy fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
A source close to negotiations said: ‘We will be quickly fixed on the outcome, by Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on the tone of the discussions.’
Hundreds of officials will hold video talks all week from London and Brussels in the fourth, and last, scheduled round of negotiations since Britain formally left the EU on January 31.
The previous round ended in acrimony when Michel Barnier asked David Frost to watch his ‘tone’ in a tetchy exchange of letters.
The EU and Britain have until the end of the year to reach a deal, without which trade links could be seriously compromised, even as the fallout from the coronavirus saps their economies.
The two sides have until the end of the month to extend the talks by one or two years according to the terms of the divorce, but Britain have rejected this idea.
There will also be a special summit to assess the talks next month, at which Boris Johnson will work out the best way forward with EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel.
Britain’s chief negotiator David Frost (left) has warned EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier that the speed of trade deal talks this week need to increase. Pictured on March 2, 2020, in the first round of post-Brexit trade deal talks
No date has been set for the high-level meeting, which was foreseen in the political declaration signed alongside the Brexit withdrawal agreement in October.
Asked about next week’s talks, Barnier said Britain will have to reveal its true intentions.
‘I expect that I will find out whether the United Kingdom wants to leave the single market at the end of this year with an agreement or without one,’ he told Germany’s Deutschlandfunk radio.
Britain refuses to make commitments to match EU standards on health, environment, state aid and other concerns in order to win the deal.
London wants a standard trade deal similar to those given to Japan, Canada and South Korea and refuses the EU’s call for a far-reaching structure that would encompass security, research and defence.
‘What the EU is asking of us is unprecedented in any of the free trade agreements that they signed, or indeed contemplated signing, with other economies,’ senior UK minister Michael Gove told British lawmakers.
French president Emmanuel Macron (pictured visiting a factory of manufacturer Valeo in Etaples on May 26) reportedly said he is too busy fighting the coronavirus pandemic, as Britain and the EU will attempt to revive trade talks on Tuesday
But Stefaan de Rynck, an adviser to Barnier, said there was little chance for a breakthrough with the level playing field the crux of the matter.
‘I think we need to move beyond the kind of idea that signing up to international commitments that are legally binding would have some kind of threat to national democracy,’ he told a panel at the Institute for Government think-tank.
But the EU fear that a Britain unshackled from EU standards but enjoying zero-tariff trade ties could become a backdoor for companies to compete unfairly in the EU single market.
The EU, after the urging of France, is pushing hard for an ambitious deal on fishing in which EU vessels could enjoy the same access to British waters as they did before the divorce.
Phil Hogan, the EU’s Trade Commissioner, wondered whether Britain actually wanted a deal.
‘Perhaps the United Kingdom have come to the conclusion that there’s not going to be a deal. I hope not,’ Hogan told MEPs earlier this week.
‘Perhaps this is more strategic than substance, but we certainly need confidence building measures in the next round of negotiations,’ he said.