EU Threatens UK, Needs to Be ‘More Realistic’ in Brexit Talks or Risk No Deal

The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, threatened that if the United Kingdom does not capitulate to “more realistic demands” then the EU will forgo further negotiations in favour of a no-deal Brexit.

The French eurocrat accused Britain of “cherry-picking” in Brexit negotiations.

“It needs to be more realistic. Because we will not accept cherry-picking. Nor will we accept an agreement which would go to the detriment and the integrity of the Single Market,” Barnier said in an interview with The Times.

“We haven’t accepted it and we will not accept cherry-picking to the detriment of the EU Single Market and the member-states because they themselves accept a number of rules, the Court of Justice, contributions to the European budget and the rules of the EU,” he claimed.

The eurocrat admitted that there has not been “an awful lot of progress” in trade negotiations with the British, but went on to say that Britain could “breathe new life” into talks by agreeing to submit tp European Union regulations on labour, security, and permitting European fishing trawlers to continue taking the majority of the fish in British territorial waters.

“Clearly we want an agreement but that cannot be an agreement at any cost. To succeed in this we have called upon the UK to show more realism,” he insisted.

Last week, the EU’s trade negotiator went as far as wrting a letter to a group of anti-Brexit British opposition MPs, promising that the bloc would be in favour of extending the so-called transition period by “up to one or two years” — effectively delaying Brexit until 2023.

“The European Union has always said that we remain open on this matter. Any extension decision has to be taken by the Joint Committee before July 1, and must be accompanied by an agreement on a financial contribution by the United Kingdom,” Barnier said.

Any extension to the transition period would effectively lock the United Kingdom into a situation where they would be bound by EU diktats while having zero representation in the decision-making process. The country lost its representation in Brussels after formally leaving the EU on January 31st, 2020, despite the fact it remains an EU member in all but name while the transition negotiations are ongoing.

Should the United Kingdom and the European Union fail to reach an agreement within the next month, British negotiators will exit talks with the EU, and the country will begin making preparations over the next six months to begin trading with the bloc on World Trade Organization (WTO) terms.

According to government sources, Boris Johnson has already begun planning for such a contingency.

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