British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was Brussels-bound yesterday, with the UK’s fading hopes for a post-Brexit trade deal hanging on crisis talks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Johnson’s dash back to the city where once he made his name as an EU-bashing newspaper reporter marked the last chance of a breakthrough before the UK leaves the EU single market.
Talks are blocked over the issue of fair competition, with the UK refusing to accept a mechanism to allow the EU to retaliate swiftly if the British business regulations change in ways that put European firms at a disadvantage.
EU negotiator Michel Barnier and his British counterpart, David Frost, have narrowed the gaps over eight months of talks, but London insists it will reclaim full sovereignty at the end of the year after a half-century of close economic integration.
If the UK leaves the EU single market in three weeks without a follow-on trade deal the delays that travelers and freight would face at its borders with the EU would be compounded by import tariffs that would drive up prices.
Johnson spoke to Von der Leyen on Monday by telephone to secure the last-chance dinner invitation after Barnier and Frost’s negotiations broke off without agreement.
He was to travel by plane and arrive late yesterday for talks at the Berlaymont building, the EU headquarters he once wrongly reported was slated for demolition when he covered Brussels as a newspaper journalist in the early 1990s.
However, officials on both sides expressed pessimism ahead of the last-ditch encounter.
“I am always hopeful, but I have to be honest with you, the situation at the moment is tricky,” Johnson said as he toured a London hospital on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Barnier gave a downbeat briefing to European ministers ahead of today’s EU leaders summit, then wrote on Twitter: “We will never sacrifice our future for the present. Access to our market comes with conditions.”
A senior EU source said that Brussels needs Johnson to make a decision to compromise.
“The sticking point in the negotiations is the equivalence clause requested by the EU to avoid distortions of competition if the UK refuses to align itself over time with EU tax, social and environmental standards,” he said.
However, a British government source said: “We must be realistic that an agreement may not be possible, as we will not compromise on reclaiming UK sovereignty.”
However, the source added: “If we can make progress at a political level it may allow Lord Frost and his team to resume negotiations over the coming days.”
Even as London and Brussels try to carve out a new trading relationship, the separate and politically vexed issue of Northern Ireland has loomed in the background.
Northern Ireland will have the UK’s only land border with the bloc from next year, and that border is meant to stay open as part of the 1998 peace deal that ended three decades of violence over British rule.
Johnson’s government had infuriated Dublin and Brussels by introducing a UK internal market bill that would override the EU Withdrawal Agreement, which bound London to respect Northern Ireland’s unique status.
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