Michel Barnier today offered the UK a Brexit olive branch as he finally admitted there will have to be ‘compromises on both sides’ for a trade deal to be agreed.
Trade talks have been on hold since last week after the EU said the UK would need to move first to break the negotiating deadlock, prompting Boris Johnson to formally trigger preparations for a no deal split.
The Government left the door open to restarting talks but only if it received a ‘clear assurance’ from the bloc that there would be a ‘genuine negotiation rather than one side being expected to make all of the moves’.
Mr Barnier signalled this morning that the EU is now willing to make concessions in what appeared to be a last ditch bid to salvage trade discussions.
He told the European Parliament he believed an ‘agreement is within reach’ but warned ‘time is running out’ as the clock ticks down to the end of the post-Brexit standstill transition period in December.
A Number 10 spokesman said the Government ‘notes with interest’ Mr Barnier’s comments as hopes of talks resuming increased.
Downing Street said the remarks will be studied ‘carefully’ ahead of a phone call between the EU’s chief negotiator and his UK counterpart Lord Frost this afternoon.
Michel Barnier today offered the UK a Brexit olive branch as he said the EU is seeking the ‘necessary compromises on both sides’ to strike a trade deal
Boris Johnson paused trade talks last week as the two sides remain deadlocked. Downing Street said the EU would need to provide a ‘clear assurance’ it is willing to compromise for talks to resume
Mr Barnier told MEPs the EU’s ‘doors will always remain open, right up until the very end’ as he urged the UK to return to the negotiating table.
He said: ‘We will seek the necessary compromises on both sides in order to do our upmost to reach an agreement and we will do so right up until the last day that it is possible to do so.
‘Our doors will always remain open, right up until the very end. But as has been said… we will remain firm.
‘We are ready to discuss al subjects on the basis of legal texts. We are here to negotiate an agreement, an international treaty and that is a legal document, a legal instrument.’
Mr Barnier insisted he still believed a free trade deal can be struck between the two sides in the coming weeks.
‘Despite the difficulties we have faced an agreement is within reach,’ he said.
‘If both sides are willing to work constructively, if both sides are willing to compromise and if we are able to make progress in the next few days on the basis of legal texts and if we are ready with the next few days to resolve the sticking points, the trickiest subjects because time is of the essence and time is running out each and every day.’
On the crunch issue of post-Brexit fishing rights, one of the main stumbling blocks to a deal, Mr Barnier said: ‘There will not be a trade deal without a fair solution for fishermen on both sides.
‘There needs to be mutual access to waters and there needs to be a fair distribution of quotas for fishermen on both sides.’
Meanwhile, European Council President Charles Michel said ‘we want a deal but not at any cost’ as he told the UK: ‘You can’t have your cake and eat it too.’
Mr Barnier’s comments have prompted growing speculation that trade talks could now resume in the coming days.
A Number 10 spokesman said: ‘We note with interest that the EU’s negotiator, speaking to the European Parliament this morning, has commented in a significant way on the issues behind the current difficulties in our talks.
‘We are studying carefully what was said. David Frost will discuss the situation when he speaks to Michel Barnier later today.’
Downing Street had set out its stall yesterday as it said the EU needed to ‘fundamentally change their approach’ and ‘make it clear that they have done so’.
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman said the UK needed to see ‘a clear assurance from the EU that it has made a fundamental change in approach to the talks and that this is going to be a genuine negotiation rather than one side being expected to make all of the moves’.
Mr Barnier’s intervention came after Mr Johnson and Michael Gove, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, held a call with business leaders last night to urge them to step up their preparations for a no trade deal split from the bloc.
However, some of the participants on the call were left distinctly unimpressed as they told the BBC that it ‘felt like a box ticking exercise’ rather than an attempt at genuine engagement.
Mr Gove reportedly told those on the call that the end of the transition period would be ‘a bit like moving house – a bit of disruption till you get used to a bigger and better house’.
Mr Johnson had set a deadline of agreeing a broad outline of a deal with the EU by last week’s European Council summit.
But the two sides remain deadlocked in a number of key areas, including on fishing but also on the so-called ‘level playing field’ on regulations and on the governance of the agreement.
EU leaders said they were willing for talks to continue but refused to give any ground as they told the UK it had to make the next move.
That prompted Mr Johnson to pause official talks and formally activate preparations for the UK to split from the bloc without a trade accord in place at the end of the year.