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Barnier gives gloomy assessment of negotiations with the UK

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After an intense weekend of negotiations, both in London and Brussels, the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier gave a gloomy assessment to senior European diplomats. The same sticking points remain: level playing field, governance and fisheries.

Last night (6 December), rumours emerged that progress has been made on fisheries, though a UK government source told EU Reporter that there had been no breakthrough on fish and that nothing new has been achieved in this field. 

In the meantime, the UK government has tabled the UK Internal Market Bill for debate in the House of Commons to consider the House of Lords amendments, including the removal of the clauses that break international law, the rule of law and - more specifically for the EU side - commitments made by the UK over a year ago by the Britsh government in the Withdrawal Agreement. At this moment, it is anticipated that the government will reintroduce the offending clauses.

The decision by the British government to backtrack on its agreement has eroded trust and made the EU side wary of making any agreement that does not include strong enforcement measures. The EU in this sense has retrenched and turned one of the favoured phrases of the UK side, ‘No deal is better than a bad deal’, on to their counterparts. 

The discussions of the joint committee on the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement, run in parallel and recommence today between Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove and European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič. While these discussions are nominally independent of the agreement on the future trade relationship the ease of GB to NI and NI to GB trade will be determined by the outcome of those discussions.

To further heighten tension, the UK government is also tabling a Taxation Bill on Tuesday (8 December); it has been speculated that this bill will continue further measures that are contrary to the Withdrawal Agreement. It would seem that the UK is either indifferent to the commitments it has already made, or is hoping that the bill will act as further leverage in negotiations. 

Michel Barnier is currently briefing the European Parliament’s UK co-ordination group on developments. 

In a joint statement on Saturday (5 December), European Commission President von der Leyen and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed that progress has been achieved in many areas, but added that significant differences remain on three critical issues; both sides underlined that no agreement is feasible if these issues are not resolved. They agreed to speak again this evening (7 December).

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