BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) – European Union chief negotiator Michel Barnier will travel to London late on Friday in a last-ditch attempt to clinch a Brexit trade deal as the two sides try to resolve differences over fish and competition policy.
With just five weeks left until the United Kingdom finally exits the EU’s orbit, both sides are calling on the other to move their positions to clear the way for a trade deal that would avoid a tumultuous finale to the five-year Brexit crisis.
Face-to-face negotiations will resume after they had to be suspended last week when one of Barnier’s team tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
“In line with Belgian rules, my team and I are no longer in quarantine. Physical negotiations can continue,” Barnier said. “Travelling to London this evening to continue talks.”
In a closed-door meeting for national diplomats in Brussels, Barnier said that he was not able to say yet whether a new UK trade deal would be ready in time, a source told Reuters.
The talks are still snagged on three main issues, fair competition guarantees, governance and fisheries, but neither, so far, have shown a willingness to shift enough on them to make way for any breakthrough.
Barnier told EU envoys differences persist on the three controversial issues, a senior EU diplomat told Reuters.
The Barnier presentation did not present “a particularly bright picture” of the talks, the diplomat added.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday the EU was ready for the possibility of Britain leaving the bloc without a new trade accord despite “genuine progress” in the tortuous Brexit talks.
(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels and Guy Faulconbridge in London; Editing by Alison Williams and Kate Holton)
