EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier believes that a trade deal with the United Kingdom is still possible. The Frenchman said that in Brussels before he updated the ambassadors of the 27 member states on the play in the negotiations.
They will continue in Brussels on Monday. The biggest bottlenecks are the access of European fishermen to UK waters and rules on fair competition between the UK and European companies, Barnier said.
This means that the two parties have approached each other about the supervision of the agreements made.
“We only negotiated for nine months when it should take us at least five years,” Barnier said. “We are going to give this agreement every chance, which is still possible. A good, balanced agreement. ”
“There are still two points that we cannot resolve free and fair competition and agreement on guaranteed reciprocal access to markets and waters. We have not yet originated the right balance with the British on these points. So we keep working. ”
On Sunday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed to take another shot at negotiating an agreement, after setting Sunday as the deadline for a “firm decision” on the usefulness of further negotiations earlier that week.