Brexit: Michel Barnier tells MEPs that Wednesday is final deadline for deal
Brussels’ chief negotiator Michel Barnier has reportedly told MEPs that Wednesday is the final deadline to salvage to a UK-EU trade deal and escape a no-deal Brexit.
Barnier spoke to MEPs and to EU ambassadors this morning, after in-person negotiations with his UK counterpart Lord David Frost in Brusels yesterday.
Talks continue in Brussels today.
Irish broadcaster RTE reports that Barnier told the European Parliament’s Brexit coordination committee that Boris Johnson must drop his Internal Market Bill, that could potentially breach the Withdrawal Agreement, or else a deal will not be agreed.
He also said that negotiations were now in the “endgame”.
Johnson will speak to European Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen this evening to “take stock” of where talks are at and to see if there is a path to a post-Brexit trade deal.
A source close to Frost’s negotiating team told The Sunday Times that the chances of a no-deal Brexit were “50-50”.
Environment secretary George Eustice told the BBC yesterday that the UK needed to see a deal is possible by Wednesday or else talks will be off.
“The European Union came forward with lots of new additional requests again so we stated again last week as hopeful and there’s no denying things have gone backwards later last week,” he said.
“Of course if the ambience warms up again and great progress is made and it’s just sorting out the detail then you could always find more time, you could always extend.”
French demands over fisheries access to UK waters is now seen as the largest barrier to a post-Brexit trade deal, with Emmanuel Macron reportedly prepared to veto the deal.
Barnier is asking for EU countries to maintain access to 80 per cent of the value of fish in British waters that they had pre-Brexit.
The UK’s latest offer to Brussels is reportedly for them keep as little as 20 per cent – a figure turned down by Barnier.
A Downing Street spokesperson today said: “Time is in very short supply and we are in the final stages, but we are prepared to negotiate for as long as we have time available if we think an agreement is still possible.
“We are now clear that time is very short.”