The British government sees little progress, negotiator David Frost said after another week of video conferencing on both sides. The standstill is unfortunate.
There has been “very little progress” in reaching an agreement “on the most important open questions between us”. This applies above all to the point of equal and fair competitive conditions. The EU wants Britain to at least partially adapt to the applicable EU rules in order to avoid unequal competitive conditions.
Frost believes agreements are possible until the end of the year
However, he still considers an agreement by the end of the year to be “possible,” said Frost. On issues such as law enforcement, an agreement within the schedule is possible without major problems.
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EU chief negotiators too Michael Barnier said the talks were “disappointing”. Apart from some “modest” successes, “no progress was possible this week on the more difficult issues”. He was “disappointed with the lack of ambition on the part of the British side in other areas that are not the focus of the negotiations, but which are important and symbolic”.
The next round of talks must make progress to prevent a standstill. He was not very optimistic, but the EU was not ready to negotiate its values.
Negotiations are taking place on trade and partnership agreements. Britain had left the EU at the end of January. There is a transition period until the end of 2020, so that nothing has changed in everyday life. If no agreement is reached within this period, there is a risk of a hard economic break.
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Time is of the essence: the decision in June is to extend the transition period. Great Britain has so far strictly rejected this. A further round of negotiations via video conferencing is planned for the week from the beginning of the month.
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