BRUSSELS: EU and UK negotiators pressed on with talks on Saturday with no sign of them breaking an impasse over post-Brexit fishing rights in time to save a trade deal.
Fishing is now the main obstacle to any pact that could be in place on Jan. 1 to prevent an economic jolt on both sides of the Channel as Britain leaves the single market.
“It remains very blocked,” one EU diplomat told AFP.
Another said Brussels had made Britain its last offer on fishing access and it was down now to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to decide whether he wants a deal.
“If Britain doesn’t accept the latest EU offer of it will be a ‘no deal’ over fish,” he warned.
The EU’s pointman in the talks, Michel Barnier, has proposed EU fishermen giving up nearly a quarter of the value of the fish they currently catch in UK waters. Britain is understood to be holding out for getting back much more than half.
The UK has suggested this compromise last for three years before it is renegotiated, whereas Europe is holding out for seven. “It’s all down to numbers now,” the second European diplomat said.
Barnier has consulted member states that share fishing waters with Britain, but has been told to stand his ground.
The European Parliament has highlighted a deadline of midnight on Sunday to receive a deal for review if MEPs are to ratify it before the end of the year.
Their UK parliamentary counterparts are in recess, but can be recalled within 48 hours to do likewise.
But EU capitals are not binding themselves to the European Parliament’s deadline. The second diplomatic source said Britain effectively had until the end of the year to make its mind up.
France’s European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune warned that time left to get a deal was “a matter of hours,” echoing words used by Barnier a day earlier.
