The European Union’s Chief Negotiator, Michel Barnier has indicated that the bloc is giving a “final push” in a bid to strike a Brexit trade deal with Britain, with the two sides inching towards agreement on fishing.
Britain is set to complete its departure from the EU when it leaves the bloc’s single market and customs union on Dec. 31, meaning its current free trade arrangements expire.
The two sides have for months been struggling to seal a new deal on everything from trade to transport to energy. Brussels sources said the two side had narrowed their differences on the controversial issue of access to fish stocks from 2021, but the issue remained an obstacle to a deal.
“We are really in a crucial moment. We are giving it a final push,” said Barnier.
While EU officials and diplomats said cutting the value of the bloc’s fishing catch in British waters by around 30% from 2021 would be too high, the EU was willing to go as far as 25%.
The sources said the number was just one aspect of the dispute, with the length of the transition period on fishing rights beyond Dec. 31, as well as how the EU could retaliate if London cut its vessels out of British waters, equally important.
The UK’s offer to gradually curb EU access over three years was also deemed too short for the bloc, which wants a longer-term business perspective for its fishing industry, while London has deemed the bloc’s recent proposal of six years too long.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who campaigned for Brexit in a 2016 referendum on a sovereignty platform, has repeatedly said Britain will become an independent coastal state in control of its waters and who fishes there.
An estimated trillion dollars worth of annual trade is at risk if the two parties fail to craft a new accord by the end of this year.
A senior British minister has ruled out prolonging Britain’s transition out of the EU beyond Dec. 31.
The final stages of the talks comes as EU and other countries have suspended most travel to and from Britain to try to curb a mutant variant of the coronavirus.
The European Union has told member countries to lift their travel bans on the UK to allow essential journeys and minimise trade disruption.
Dozens of countries have blocked people arriving from Britain over fears about the new coronavirus variant with France going a step further by stopping lorry drivers crossing the English Channel.
The EU Commission said in a statement it was “important to take swift temporary precautionary action” to limit the spread of COVID-19 but added, “flight and train bans should be discontinued given the need to ensure essential travel and avoid supply chain disruptions.”
The EU commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, also said that “blanket travel bans should not prevent thousands of EU and UK citizens from returning to their homes” in the run up to Christmas.
