An “11th-hour” dinner meeting between Boris Johnson and EU boss Ursula von der Leyen trailed as the last-chance opportunity to get a Brexit deal turned out to be anything but, with both sides merely agreeing that talks could go on.
Crunch European Union talks have a long-held — and well deserved — reputation of going ‘to the wire’, with discussions frequently going on all-night until the very last possible moment to come to an agreement. Despite repeated — literally dozens — of imposed deadlines and warnings from both sides, Brexit negotiations seem perfectly likely to conform to that stereotype after a supposed crunch summit proved to be anything but.
Britain’s Boris Johnson flew to Brussels on a government jet on Wednesday to eat with the European Commission’s Ursula von der Leyen at which, she said, they would discuss a “Partnership Agreement”. Because there is a European Union leader’s summit today (Thursday), it was said Wednesday’s talk would have to settle the Brexit question for good. But as the evening passed, it became clear that would not be possible.
As Mr Johnson left dinner to return to London he said talks would continue to Sunday, and in a statement von der Leyen clearly expressed there had been little progress, noting the two sides “remain far apart”. Using the political jargon familiar to followers of Brexit progress, the European Commission president said euphemistically that talks were “lively and interesting” and, echoing Johnson’s comments that talks could now run on to Sunday, said “we will come to a decision by the end of the weekend”.
Yet even this new, latest deadline seemed dead within hours, as Britain’s foreign secretary Dominic Raab said it was “unlikely” a decision would be reached this weekend and that “We know with the EU that negotiations go to the wire”. Nevertheless, Mr Raab said the country needed “finality”, with just weeks to go for businesses to prepare for what sort of end to the transition period materialises.
Sunday, he said, would merely be a moment to stop and take stock of the state of negotiations.
Speaking to British breakfast television on Thursday, Mr Raab re-established Boris Johnson’s occasional refrain that Britain would not be bullied into a Brexit deal at any price, noting the bullish position of European negotiators. Insisting there remained a deal to be done, nevertheless, the foreign secretary said: “frankly, we just haven’t seen enough pragmatism and flexibility on the EU side… the concept that the UK would leave the transition period as an independent coastal state without control of our fisheries, that’s something that no country in the world would accept, or has accepted.
“We should be in control of our laws… what we’re not going to do is to allow the EU to undemocratically control the laws in this country. And those two basic points of principle that no other country in the world would accept in dealing with the EU or anyone else.”
While the two outcomes of Brexit Britain is looking to for the end of this year essentially boil down to deal or no deal — agreeing to let Europe keep some of Britain’s sovereignty in return for a trade arrangement, or Britain making a clean break and being free to forge its own path — there is another option on the table. The European Union has offered Britain a ‘contingency’ plan, in essence extending Britain’s stay within the European Union in several key areas to allow talks to continue even longer, into 2021 and possibly beyond.
This would not be without a cost in itself, however, as the EU has demanded Britain concede to being subject to certain EU rules in return.
The United Kingdom officially left the European Union in January 2020, but in all practical senses remained a non-voting member — still bound by EU laws and regulations. This so-called transition period is due to expire at the end of 2020.
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