Brexit: Boris Johnson and EU chief von der Leyen to speak at lunchtime in last ditch bid to save a trade deal
Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will speak at lunchtime today in a bid to save faltering post-Brexit trade negotiations.
The pair are expected to decide whether there is a pathway to a trade deal or whether to end talks today, with less than three weeks left until the UK leaves the EU’s single market and customs union.
Fears of a no-deal Brexit have risen dramatically over the past week as both sides continue to say they are far apart in negotiations.
Future fisheries arrangements, business subsidy regulations as a part of level playing field talks and the overall governance of the deal are the three largest barriers to a deal.
Von der Leyen reportedly told EU leaders on Friday that there was now a “higher probability for no-deal than deal”.
Foreign secretary Dominic Raab told the BBC today that von der Leyen must today make compromises on fisheries and level playing field for Brexit talks to continue.
He said: “Will the EU move on the two key issues of level playing field and fisheries? If there is the will to do that, there is progress to be made.
“The bar is quite high for us to keep talking – we would need a political commitment to move on those two key issues.”
Raab also said this morning that the EU had “moved the goal posts” in trade talks and suggested that Brussels had negotiated in bad faith.
Chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier and chief UK negotiator Lord David Frost have been wrangling over how much access it retains to the UK’s fishing waters next year.
It has been rumoured that the UK only want the EU to keep about 20 per cent of the fish it was allocated pre-Brexit, while the EU want closer to 80 per cent.
Various media reports yesterday said the UK government was preparing to patrol its borders with armed gunboats to see off European fishing boats if there is a no-deal Brexit on 1 January.
The suggestion has been widely mocked by opposition MPs over the weekend.
Raab defended the move today.
“The Navy has always been involved in coast guard operations,” he said.
“I think if we leave the EU with no trade deal – which we want, which we’re striving for – of course we’re going to exercise full control in the way I think people would expect over our fisheries.”