The EU’s negotiator for post-Brexit relations, Michel Barnier, is to travel to London on the evening of Friday 27 November to continue negotiations with the British government. Negotiations that remain difficult, as the negotiator told national ambassadors to the EU the same day in the morning, one source reported.
Indeed, the EU negotiator admitted that at this stage he was unable to say whether an agreement with London could be reached. The three main points of divergence remain, the negotiator recalled, namely fair competition rules, governance and fisheries.
While the Commission, through its President, Ursula von der Leyen, had mentioned earlier this week some progress, notably on State aid, “there was no mention of this on Friday; Michel Barnier said nothing about it”, our source added.
Member States took note of this and discussed, in particular, plans to prepare for a lack of agreement. Some countries would have been angry at the Commission’s silence on this subject, even though the Commission assures us that preparations for a no deal on 1 January are adequate and at a satisfactory level.
In addition, Member States have had a fairly broad discussion on the provisional procedural rules and on the nature of a possible agreement which could be of an exclusively Community nature and not require referral to national parliaments.
Before leaving for London, the Chief Negotiator was to meet with the coastal member countries involved in fisheries. According to Irish television station RTE, Michel Barnier could propose a compromise to be presented in London: the EU would pay the UK 15-18% of the value of the catches made by European fishermen in British waters, i.e. around 117 million euros, according to RTE, quoted by Reuters. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)