Barnier has again called for clarity from the UK (he must be sick and tired of asking for the same thing over and over again) during a speech to business leaders in Hanover (HERE). A spokesman for Mrs May claims she has provided clarity and pointed to her speeches. I note Barnier never refers to his speeches and neither does anybody on our side. This is because the EU don't rely on speeches to negotiate treaties - and neither does anyone else.
He is also insisting on a role for the ECJ in future relationship with the UK. But the report of Barnier's comments on the Politico website also includes a warning from him and a reminder that the heads of government and the EU parliament can agree the withdrawal treaty but the trade deal is mixed, so a unanimous vote of all EU parliaments is required. This will include regional parliaments too.
He apparently ended his speech by "appealing to the U.K. not to underestimate the huge veto risk on the EU side if its demands are not fulfilled".
This hasn't been discussed much of late but it may become very important - eventually.
At the moment a CETA style trade deal is all we are likely to be offered and we will have 21 months starting April 2019 to negotiate the details and get the agreement signed and ratified.
Negotiations for the CETA deal with Canada began in 2009 and finished in August 2014 (HERE). It was signed in October 2016 and the EU parliament ratified it in March 2017 and it provisionally entered into force in September 2017. Note the period between negotiations being concluded (August 2014) and the agreement provisionally entering into force (September 2017) is three years. This is more than we have for the entire process including negotiations, legal checking (scrubbing) and final drafting and ratification by all 30 or more EU parliaments, each one with an effective veto.
Anyone who believes this can all be done by December 2020 is living in a fantasy world, perhaps even the same one as those who think the final deal will be a good one for the UK are living.
