They finally met on Sunday December 6 in Brussels. While they believed at the end of the week to be able to reach an agreement on the trade relationship between the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom after Brexit from the 1er January 2021, Michel Barnier, the negotiator for the Europeans, and David Frost, his British alter ego, had separated, Friday evening in London, on a finding of disagreement. They had, however, spent more than a week discussing intensely in the “cellar” (as the British media have called it), a windowless ground floor of the British Department of Industry, a stone’s throw from the Westminster Abbey.
The telephone interview between the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on Saturday at the end of the day, did not change anything. Of “Progress has been made in many areas” But ” significant differences remain ”sur fisheries, the conditions for fair competition and how to resolve any future disputes, they said in a joint statement. Mme von der Leyen and Mr Johnson nevertheless agreed that“An additional effort had to be undertaken” and planned to take stock Monday, December 7 in the evening. The subject will be on the agenda of the council, which is to meet the Twenty-Seven in Brussels, Thursday 10 and Friday 11 December.
The thorny question of fishing
On fishing, an economically minor but politically major subject, London continues to demand, in the name of a necessary “Regained sovereignty”, a ceiling of the quotas allocated to Europeans in its territorial waters. Conversely, European coastal states want to limit losses for their fishermen to a minimum. France is particularly offensive: less than two years before the presidential election, Emmanuel Macron wants at all costs to avoid a new social movement that would fuel the populist vote.
But the lines have changed: the British are ready to agree to only gradually recover their fishing quotas (after three years, according to their latest proposal). And Europeans no longer talk about status quo. ” A new era is about to begin. I want there to be a specific support plan », Declared the French Prime Minister, Jean Castex, visiting Boulogne-sur-Mer (Pas-de-Calais) on December 3, assuring the representatives of the sector (fishermen, industrialists, transporters…) that “The state will take[it] his responsibilities “.
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