UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced today that the UK should prepare to leave the European Union without any comprehensive agreement on how relations with the EU will be in the future, provided the EU does not radically change its approach.
Johnson has previously said that Britain will leave the negotiations if an agreement is not reached at the latest during the summit, which ends today.
It didn’t happen anyway, but according to him, the EU appears to have given up on the idea of a deal.
Since the EU refuses to engage in serious negotiations, and the summit clearly does not give us an agreement similar to the one with Canada, we must prepare for events in January similar to those with Australia – that is, simpler international free trade agreements.
Australia has been negotiating a trade agreement with the European Union for two years, but does not currently have a comprehensive trade agreement.
Johnson had previously accused the EU of not negotiating seriously, and during the summit yesterday when EU leaders said Britain should come forward to agree a deal, Johnson responded by saying that the EU should change its basic positions.
“If the approach does not fundamentally change, we will invest in the same solution as Australia, and we should do so with great confidence,” Johnson said.
UK: Negotiations are over
Prime Minister Johnson’s spokesman, James Slack, said on Friday afternoon that negotiations on a broad trade agreement with the European Union are over.
According to him, it is not necessary to continue negotiations if the EU does not change its position.
– The European Union practically ended the negotiations by saying that they do not want change. Only if they change fundamentally is it possible to continue, Slack said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen continues to write on Twitter that negotiations will continue as planned in London next week.
She also repeated the EU’s message: the EU is still ready to reach an agreement, but not at any cost.
‘Britain should act, not the EU’
The message from EU leaders yesterday was that it is Britain that should act in the negotiations, not the EU.
In particular, they want to see more progress in the three areas that have been stumbling blocks during the negotiations: competition terms for companies, how a future agreement will be managed and monitored, and on access to British fishing waters for fishermen from EU countries.
The UK wants a deal similar to the EU’s with Canada, but the EU does not agree.
The post-Brexit transition period ends at the end of the year, and if the parties do not agree on an agreement, all work will be carried out solely on the basis of the WTO rules of the WTO.
The article was updated at 4.10pm at 4.43pm with Slack’s comments that negotiations are over.
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