The “next few days will be crucial” in the negotiations between the EU and London on future relations, and both partners are coming “to the moment of truth”, said European Council President Charles Michel in Dublin on Thursday 8 October.
A week before the European Summit on 15 and 16 October, which is supposed to assess the negotiations, the President of the European Council, who was meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin, said he expects the United Kingdom to take “significant steps in the coming days, not only on fisheries, but also on fair competition and governance”.
Micheál Martin considered that the situation is indeed still uncertain. “There needs to be movement, and there is still a lot of work for the negotiators” on some aspects, the Taoiseach said: if “the mood has changed and there is more commitment, the substance must follow that mood” with, he added, “concrete results”.
EU negotiator Michel Barnier is in London on Thursday and Friday to continue talks with British negotiator David Frost. Media attention is currently focused on the fisheries issue. According to AFP, Michel Barnier asked the ambassadors of the Member States to the EU to accept a compromise on fisheries during their discussion on 7 October; these requests had already been made earlier in the week to the States particularly concerned by fisheries, who then took a firm position and told the negotiator that he had to maintain this line in the face of London and the mandate on the table, namely access equivalent to current levels.
A diplomatic source confirmed on 8 October that Michel Barnier had again asked these Member States about this subject on 7 October, but they repeated that there is no room to manoeuvre. The other Member States have aligned themselves with this position, the source added.
In the meantime, it is not yet clear whether the leaders will be in a position on 15 and 16 October to work on further decisive progress between now and then, or whether this will be a progress report intended to provide a framework for the continuation of the negotiations, which could, in theory, continue until the end of the month or even the beginning of November. The results of the informal talks between Mr Barnier and Mr Frost this week could give a first indication of the course of action envisaged at the European Summit. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)