EU’s Barnier urges UK to accept compromise on post-Brexit deal. www.eudebates.tv/debates/special-debates/uk-politics/brexit-barnier-worried-and-disappointed-over-eu-uk-talks/ #eudebates #debates #Barnier #BREXIT #negotiations The European Union's chief Brexit negotiator has said there has been no change in the British position on the future relationship negotiations following his informal meeting with the UK's chief negotiator David Frost in London this week.
Mr Barnier made the remarks in a wide-ranging but downbeat assessment of negotiations during a virtual address to the Institute for International and Economic Affairs.
He said the UK has so far "not engaged constructively" on the EU's conditions for an agreement, especially on what he called "credible guarantees" for open and fair competition between both sides post-Brexit.
Mr Barnier accused the UK of showing no willingness to compromise on the fisheries question, and said London had been "extremely reluctant" to explore a dispute resolution mechanism that both sides could adhere to in the future.
He said that overall the UK wanted a clean break from the EU but still wanted to access key parts of the EU single market without meeting its obligations.
Any unfair advantage for the UK could affect tens of thousands of EU jobs, he said, including jobs in Ireland.
"Of course, Ireland's particularly close relationship with the UK makes these questions even more important, especially for businesses exporting to Great Britain or competing with British companies," he told the IIEA.
"Any trade and economic partnership between economies as close and interconnected as ours must include robust and credible mechanisms to avoid trade distortions and unfair competitive advantages," he stated.
"This is particularly important in the area of state aid, where the potential to distort competition using subsidies is significant," he added.
"A level playing field that ensures common high standards in areas such as labour rights and the environment and with effective domestic enforcement and dispute settlement mechanisms, is the only way to start a new relationship between the EU and the UK on a firm and sustainable footing," Mr Barnier said.
On fisheries, Mr Barnier said the EU was prepared to compromise, but the UK had shown no willingness to move on its opening position.
"Yet the UK government's position would lock out Ireland's fishermen and women from waters they fished in long before Ireland or the UK joined the European Economic Community in 1973," he said.
"And of course, the fishermen and women of many other EU countries. That is just not acceptable" he added.
"We fully understand and respect that the UK will become an independent coastal state, outside the Common Fisheries Policy. But we will not accept that the work and the livelihoods of these men and women be used as a bargaining chip in these negotiations," he stated.
Any solution, Mr Barnier said, needed to ensure a balance between greater access to fish stocks for UK fishing fleets and "safeguarding the activities and livelihoods of European fishermen and women."
"Without a long-term, fair and sustainable solution on fisheries, there will simply be no new economic partnership with the UK," he warned.
On Wednesday 2 September Michel Barnier, Head of the EU Task Force for Relations with the United Kingdom, will address a webinar on the state of play in the negotiations on the future relationship between the EU and the UK, the obstacles on the road to an agreement, and the key issues that will shape the relationship in the years to come. www.eudebates.tv/ #eudebates #debates #Barnier #BREXIT #negotiations
This online event is co-organised by the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) and the European Commission Representation in Ireland. www.eudebates.tv/ #eudebates
The IIEA is Ireland’s leading European & International Affairs think tank. We are an independent, not-for-profit organisation with charitable status.
Michel Barnier is the European Commission’s Head of Task Force for Relations with the United Kingdom. He was previously the head of the Commission’s Article 50 Taskforce, charged with negotiating the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union. In a long career in European and domestic politics, Mr Barnier has served in many roles, including as Minister of European Affairs of France; Minister of Foreign Affairs of France; European Commissioner and Vice-President in charge of Internal Market and Services; and European Commissioner for Regional Policy and the Reform of European Institutions.
The relationship between the UK and the EU, and its implications for Ireland, has been a central element of the IIEA’s events and research programme for over two decades. The programme monitors and analyses the latest developments in Brexit, the UK’s future relationship with Europe, and the constitutional future of the UK itself.
Негізгі бет Brexit: London has been "extremely reluctant" to explore a dispute resolution mechanism
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