The Times - UK (2020-10-15)

14 1GM Thursday October 15 2020 | the times

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Past glories The Crescent in Buxton, Derbyshire, is among 181 sites removed from Historic England’s list of places at risk of neglect, while Madeira Terrace on Brighton’s seafront is one of 216 to be added

HISTORIC ENGLAND/PA

Boris Johnson’s chief Brexit negotiator,

Lord Frost, has told the prime minister

not to walk out of trade talks because

deals to cover security and fishing are

possible over the next two weeks.

Last month Mr Johnson set the Euro-

pean Union summit today as the dead-

line for an agreement or it would be

time to “move on” and accept that there

would be no deal.

A source close to the talks said Lord

Frost advised Mr Johnson that a deal

with the EU was not impossible, al-

though time was tight to agree 500

pages of legal text this month. He told

Downing Street both sides would need

to work hard, with a shift to daily talks,

but that a deal could be reached in time.

Last night Mr Johnson held a confer-

ence call with the Ursula von der Leyen,

president of the European Commis-

sion, and Charles Michel, president of

the council. Mr Johnson’s spokesman

gave a downbeat assessment. “The

prime minister noted the desirability of

a deal, but expressed his disappoint-

ment that more progress had not been

made over the past two weeks,” he said.

Mrs Von der Leyen said: “The EU is

working on a deal, but not at any price.

Conditions must be right,” she said.

Mr Johnson had told them that he

looked forward to the outcome of the

European Council meeting and would

reflect before setting out his next steps,

the spokesman said.

The prime minister is expected to

analyse any comments, especially

those of Angela Merkel, the German

chancellor, and President Macron of

France, before a final decision on whe-

ther to walk away.

A British official said: “There are still

differences, with fisheries being the

starkest.” The official noted that the

prime minister was “very clear about

the significance” of the summit. “We

need to get substance settled and not

having a common text to work from has

made progress doubly difficult.”

His judgment will not be made before

Friday and will depend on signals that

European governments are ready to go

the extra mile, especially on fishing.

Draft EU summit conclusions circu-

lated to European ambassadors note

that talks are deadlocked on the same

questions of subsidy controls, enforce-

ment and fisheries that have blocked

progress for the past six months.

Unhelpfully for Mr Johnson, the

draft text notes that “progress is still not

sufficient” but calls on Michel Barnier,

the chief EU negotiator, to “intensify

negotiations with the aim of ensuring

that an agreement can be applied from

January 1”. A European ambassador

said: “The deadline is really a British

deadline. The heads of state and gov-

ernment will want to send a strong sig-

nal that they’re interested, that they

want an agreement and that the negoti-

ations should be intensified.”

Fishing has become the most difficult

problem for the EU in the talks with

threats by Mr Macron to take the whole

deal hostage unless existing fish quotas

are preserved for French fishermen.

Mrs Merkel will risk a row by telling

him that his brinkmanship risks dam-

aging other European economies.

6 Flights to and from the EU could be

grounded when the transition period

ends, Grant Shapps, the transport sec-

retary, has admitted. He said both sides

agreed before March 21 last year that

flights would continue for a year even

without a trade deal, but Britain was

still waiting to hear if the EU would

consider a similar scheme for the end of

the transition period on December 31.

Farming safeguards, letters, page 26

The skippers of two fishing boats from

Devon say that the crew of about 20

French vessels fired flares and threw

oil, stones and frying pans at them in a

battle over scallops in the Channel.

French fishermen are prohibited by

their country’s law from catching scal-

lops between May 15 and October 1, and

want the same rules for the British, who

can catch scallops all year.

Brian Whittington, 43, whose boat

British boats attacked by French

Will Humphries

Southwest Correspondent

the Golden Promise, was attacked in the

early hours of Monday, said: “They only

do it in the dark. We can’t use the radio

when they do it as they just talk over us,

so I couldn’t check on Scott Glover

[skipper of The Girl Macey] to see how

he was. We were about two miles apart

and Scott had 15 boats around him, they

were throwing oil and firing flares.”

Derek Meredith, who owns the

Golden Promise, said: “If a flare went

into the wheelhouse the boat would

have burned up and would the French

have helped?”

Give Brexit talks time, adviser urges PM

Bruno Waterfield Brussels Done deals and the potential flashpoints

When he reported back to

Downing Street yesterday,

Lord Frost classed progress

on trade, fishing and security

talks into three categories:

no progress, acceptable and

as good as agreed.

NO PROGRESS

“Level playing field” subsidy

controls (state aid)

The question of how strong

British commitments are on

subsidy control, often called

state aid, is still described as a

gulf but not an unbridgeable

one. Lord Frost this week set

out what would be legally

binding principles defining

acceptable and unacceptable

state subsidies to business.

This has failed to satisfy the

EU and the government

accused Michel Barnier, the

lead Brussels negotiator, of

trying to bind the UK to a set

of rules that looks like the

European “state aid” system.

Mr Barnier has noted that

the UK’s free trade agreement

with Japan has provisions

where both sides agree to

maintain an independent

competition authority, an

assurance that would help

satisfy the EU.

“Governance”

or enforcement

Last week Lord Frost signalled

that the government would

accept a “framework” treaty

that would have dispute

settlement and enforcement

mechanisms for all the trade,

fishing, security and other

elements of the deal.

A lot of progress has been

made with the UK recognising

the EU’s arguments but

neither side has yet drafted

legal texts, partly because of

unfinished business on the

question of subsidy controls.

The UK is still unhappy with

EU demands for a “cross

retaliation” clause allowing, for

example a dispute over fishing

to be escalated to tariffs on

cars if arbitration fails.

Fishing

Fishing has become the

biggest flashpoint for both the

British and EU sides with the

most potential to sink talks

despite being one of the most

economically insignificant

areas to find a deal. Lord Frost

has accused the EU of not

recognising the reality that,

when the transition ends at

the end of the year, Britain will

become an independent

coastal state. Mr Barnier has

said that he accepts that but

the EU, especially France,

cannot accept significant cuts

to fish quotas, of up to a third,

for the northern European

fishing fleet.

Britain has offered phased-

in cuts to quotas that

currently allow the EU to

catch 91 per cent of Channel

cod, for example. A deal and

potential economic chaos will

pivot on the question of

reduced quotas and catches

for small French boats.

ACCEPTABLE

Trade in goods

The basic meat and drink of a

free trade agreement on

goods is there in terms of the

zero tariffs and zero quotas

target that both sides set.

There is a problem with a

lot of the technical

underpinning needed to get

there, especially on

complicated rules of origin or

mutual recognition

agreements, on questions

such as certificates for

chemical or product safety.

Trade in services

Both sides are close to

agreeing the broad principles

of agreement on trade in

services, a vital component of

Britain’s export economy.

They have not yet exchanged

a written offer, so there will be

technical and legal details to

sort out in the next fortnight.

AS GOOD AS AGREED

Law enforcement

Information sharing and law

enforcement co-operation was

deadlocked in squabbling

over human rights provisions

until recent weeks.

British officials are happy

that any future agreement will

keep a suite of areas, such as

extradition, anti-terrorism

alerts and the sharing of key

aviation security data, in new

legal forms. Both sides have

agreed a form of wording that

will link police co-operation,

intelligence sharing, DNA

databases and extradition to

the European Convention on

Human Rights without

creating new treaty

obligations for UK or EU.

Road haulage

The issue of road haulage

flared up in August as a

flashpoint in the talks.

The issue is important for

the road haulage industry

because it is about setting

rules that will allow HGV

drivers to be allowed to make

pick-ups or deliveries inside

and between EU countries.

Reaching agreed

arrangements will be in the

interests of both sides,

especially European hauliers

who made 85 per cent of

2.4 million trips through UK

ports in 2018, seven times the

number of trips that British

truckers made into the EU.

Aviation, energy,

social security

Aviation rules, including

regulations for the ownership

of European airlines, have

been fixed, which means that

there will be no disruption of

air travel next year.

Highly technical areas such

as energy, allowing gas or

electricity interconnections,

and social security rights for

people moving between the

UK and EU countries have

been tied down.

Highly explosive

Moderately explosive

Low risk

Good as done