Time is of the essence, but it is still unclear whether and when there will be a trade pact between the UK and the EU. Commission chief von der Leyen and Prime Minister Johnson met on Saturday. Now the negotiations are feverish.
By Ralph Sina, ARD-Studio Brussels
Deal or no deal? That is the question this week. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke on the phone on Saturday. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier and his British colleague Lord Frost resumed their interrupted talks on Sunday. And today Barnier is to inform the 27 EU ambassadors in Brussels about the state of affairs.
“No contract at any price,” repeated France’s Secretary of State for Europe, Clement Beaune, President Emanuel Macron’s most important Brexit advisor, on French radio over the weekend. And again threatened his country’s veto: If there was an agreement, the French government would evaluate and analyze the text. And if the agreement is not good and does not meet French interests – in particular the interests of French fishermen – France, like any other EU member state, can also veto, Beaune told the Sunday newspaper “Le Journal du Dimanche”. There is no reason to sacrifice the French fishermen for the consequences of the Brexit referendum, stressed Macron’s European State Secretary.
French fishermen fear massive losses
For the fishermen from Normandy and Brittany, Brexit is definitely a hard turning point. British Prime Minister Johnson is determined to drastically reduce EU quotas in British territorial waters in accordance with the Brexit motto “Our sea, our fishermen”. The days when French cutters, for example, claimed over 80 percent of the cod in the English Channel and the share of British fishermen was just nine percent, will be over from January 1st.
The catch quotas of the EU countries bordering the North Sea should then drop drastically. In which period and to what extent are still being negotiated. There is talk of a limit to 40 to 60 percent of the previous volume in negotiating circles. And if the negotiations fail, the eight EU countries affected, with their around 18,000 fishermen and around 3,500 ships, will no longer fetch any herrings, mackerel, lobsters and lobsters from British territorial waters. Because the herring in particular does not know Brexit and prefers to stay in the particularly deep British 200-mile zone.
Irish are pushing for graduation
40 percent of their catch is at stake for EU fishermen in the event of a “no deal”. “We need a trade deal. A ‘no deal’ is not acceptable,” said Irish MP Barry Andrews to “Channel 4 News”.
After all, one has come very close during the negotiations, says the Irishman. 98 percent of the contract text on the future relationship between the European Union is already in place. The Irish government is skeptical of the veto threats from France. A veto and the final failure of the negotiations would be a political failure at the expense of the workers, stressed MP Andrews.
And yet they move
Brexit will be one of the dominant topics at the EU summit at the end of the week. Johnson must now show his colors how much fish the EU will be allowed to catch in British territorial waters in the future. And to what extent the United Kingdom accepts the standards of the EU internal market and submits to an EU arbitration court in the event of a dispute.
After all, despite all veto threats, France is indicating a willingness to compromise on the sensitive issue of standards in order to accommodate the British in insisting on their sovereignty. A minimal difference in the standards is allowed, it said from Paris. But if this measure is exceeded, certain measures would have to take effect. Such equivalence regulations – i.e. the recognition of British standards as equivalent – should also enable the Federal Government to square the circle: Great Britain adheres to the rules of the EU internal market and still feels sovereign and self-determined.
Merkel, Macron and Johnson will probably decide this week whether there will be a Brexit deal or not.
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