The tension escalates between the European Union and the United Kingdom. One day from the deadline to find a post-Brexit trade agreement, negotiations remained difficult Saturday 12 December. London still considers “unacceptable” the offer of Europeans, twenty days before the final break.
London also announced that Royal Navy ships were standing ready to protect UK fishing grounds where tensions could arise in the event of a “no deal”. Discussions in Brussels between the negotiating teams, in the presence of European negotiator Michel Barnier and his British counterpart David Frost, continued on Saturday evening, before the decision expected Sunday December 13 on the fate of post-Brexit negotiations.
But negotiations are likely to drag on Sunday, a source close to the talks said. “As it stands, EU offer remains unacceptable“, a source informed the British government in the evening.” Any agreement must be fair and respect the fundamental position that the United Kingdom will be a sovereign nation in three weeks, “she added.
Four Royal Navy ships stand by
If no compromise is found, the UK, which officially left the EU on January 31, 2020 but continues to abide by European rules during a transition period that ends on December 31, will regain full control of its waters on January 1.
Four 80-meter-long ships stand ready to prevent EU trawlers from entering UK waters if there is no new agreement on fishing rights, one of the sticking points in trade negotiations.
The British Ministry of Defense confirmed that ships were on standby, saying it had “carried out intensive planning and preparations to ensure that Defense is ready for various scenarios at the end of the transition period”, according to a door -speak of the ministry.
This deployment evokes the bad memory of “cod wars” with Iceland on fishing rights in the North Atlantic, which lasted almost 20 years, before finally being settled in the 1970s.
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