Following the European Commission’s request to London to withdraw its Internal Market Bill, which the Commission considers to be in breach of the withdrawal agreement (see EUROPE 12557/17), there was further reaction on 11 September.
Speaking from Berlin, where they were attending an informal Ecofin Council meeting, several economy and finance ministers called on the British government to respect the international treaty.
This included German finance minister Olaf Scholz, who felt that it was “clear that everyone has to stick with what has been agreed to. Treaties have to be respected; anyone knows that”.
His French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire, said that “we will not accept anything that could compromise or weaken the single European market. We believe the internal market is one of the key achievements of the European project; we will never accept a decision that could weaken or place (it) in jeopardy and we have full confidence in Michel Barnier to find the way to a solution”.
The EU “is a project based on the rule of law, on respect, on honouring past agreements and building on them in the future. And as the United Kingdom looks to what kind of future trade relationship it wants with the European Union, a prerequisite for that is honouring agreements that are already in place”, said Paschal Donohoe, Eurogroup’s Irish president.
“It is now imperative that the government of the United Kingdom respond to the call from the Commission to agree and bring this matter to a conclusion; this is a prerequisite to what any future relationship could look like”, he added.
In the European Parliament, the group on future EU/UK relations was due to declare, in the evening, that it will not be able to ratify an agreement on future bilateral relations if the agreement on an orderly Brexit is not respected.
On Friday, the Commission did not want to comment further on what actions it will take at the end of the month, the deadline given to the British Government to withdraw the bill and its provisions, which undermine the Protocol on Ireland.
The previous day, however, the EU negotiator on the future relationship, Michel Barnier, had concluded the last round of negotiations by stating that the EU is intensifying its preparatory work for “all scenarios”, i.e. no deal, from January 2021.
This week the two sides held their eighth round of talks, which was overshadowed by controversy over the British bill, but the Commission and London have not made any more progress on the other issues, according to Barnier.
The negotiator reiterated in a statement that the UK “ has not engaged in a reciprocal way on fundamental EU principles and interests”, while the EU “has shown flexibility”. Significant differences “remain in areas of essential interest for the EU”, he said, citing the “indispensable guarantees of fair competition”.
The EU says it is still not satisfied on matters regarding state aid and subsidy control. “Similarly, we are still missing important guarantees on non-regression from social, environmental, labour and climate standards”. There are “also many uncertainties about Great Britain’s sanitary and phyto-sanitary regime as from1 January 2021. More clarity is needed for the EU to do the assessment for the third-country listing of the UK”.
David Frost, the British negotiator, spoke in a similar vein, acknowledging that differences remain. He did, however, give an assurance that London was also making proposals and engaging in the discussions.
“We have been consistently clear from the start of this process about the basis on which agreement is possible between us. Those fundamentals remain”, he said. “We have consistently made proposals which provide for open and fair competition, on the basis of high standards”, he said, adding that he is still working hard “to reach agreement by the middle of October”.
The two men are due to meet again next week in Brussels and a new round of formal discussions will take place during the week beginning 28 September. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic and Marion Fontana)