Negotiations with London on the future relationship are progressing “after difficult weeks” and “very, very little progress”, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at her G20 press conference on Friday 20 November.
“We have now seen better progress in recent days, more movement on important issues“, but “we still have three challenges: governance, fisheries and a level playing field”, she added. “There are still quite a few metres to go to the finish line”, said the President.
This is also the observation, reported to EUROPE by a diplomatic source, delivered by the Commission earlier in the morning to the national ambassadors to the EU. There has been progress, but not yet enough to “be able to say that an agreement is imminent”.
The EU negotiator, Michel Barnier, had to isolate himself because of a case of Covid-19 in his entourage, so it was the Secretary General of the Commission who provided the round-up of these talks. While agreement is close on most of the deal, work remains to be done on the three most sensitive points.
Some positive steps forward from the UK have been reported on the level playing field and state aid, another source reports, but there is still more to be done. On fisheries, the Ambassadors heard that London’s position had not yet changed enough.
Diplomats from the EU27 did not necessarily go into the details of this negotiation, but did address the issue of the consequences in terms of timing, as some Member States need to implement further legislation in the event of a lack of agreement, even accidentally.
This raised questions about what procedures are possible in the event of a late agreement and what can be changed to speed up the procedure. The European Parliament, for example, has already said that it could be flexible in its timetable, but strict stages are required for ratification and therefore cannot be bypassed.
In the end, the discussion gave the feeling that an agreement remains “possible”, but “we don’t know within what timeframe”, according to one of the two sources. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Léa Marchal)