The second round of trade talks with the EU, conducted through 40 video conference, ended yesterday in more or less the same vein as the withdrawal talks began all those months ago. A few areas of agreement but substantial differences on all the major issues. Barnier's press statement afterwards (HERE) sounds like a schoolmaster delivering a blistering report to a pupil in whom he once had high expectations only to be disappointed.
He starts out speaking about how member states are focused on the coronavirus pandemic as if rebuking the UK for insisting on keeping to the timetable. He goes on to remind everybody how little time is left and questions if, "in the midst of the terrible economic crisis that is forecast due to the coronavirus crisis, we will be able to reach an intelligent agreement that limits the shock that the UK's departure from the Single Market and Customs Union will entail in any case".
He then summarises the position:
Right now though, the consequence of the United Kingdom's decision is that the clock is ticking.
We have just 8 months ahead of us to advance on three workstreams:
- Ensuring the proper implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement;
- Preparing ourselves to the negative economic consequences that the end of the transition period will entail;
- Negotiating a future partnership between the European Union and the United Kingdom with a view to limiting those negative consequences.
He points out the EU prepared a full draft legal text for an "ambitious economic and security partnership" – the full text of which is available online while the UK government has sent us text proposals on "some areas" which he could not share, nor even with the Member States and the European Parliament.
He acknowledges some progress was made a a technical level but, and here come the money quotes:
"I regret that the United Kingdom refused to engage seriously on a number of fundamental issues – issues that we did not pull out of our hat: they can be found quite precisely in the Political Declaration that we agreed with Boris Johnson. This document must be implemented seriously, precisely and objectively. I regret to say that this is not yet the case."
We cannot accept to make selective progress on a limited set of issues only.
We need to make progress on all issues in parallel.
We need to find solutions on the most difficult topics.
The UK cannot refuse to extend the transition and, at the same time, slow down discussions on important areas.
The areas he listed were the LPF conditions, governance by a single overarching agreement, judicial cooperation and fisheries. He repeated that we failed to engage 'substantially' on these topics and denounced the idea that economic interconnectedness and proximity needed robust guarantees. And he pointedly mentioned that all of these points had already been agreed with Boris Johnson in the joint Political Declaration and is what the UK Parliament approved after the December elections.
He made clear there would be no trade deal without what he called an ambitious level playing field on open and fair competition. We are not going to be allowed to become Europe's Hong Kong.
We are refusing to agree firm guarantees on human rights and want instead what Barnier called 'vague principles'. On fisheries we have submitted no legal text at all.
He warned that when the high level conference takes place in June, the EU will want to see real progress on the implementation of the Protocol on Northern Ireland.
Barnier is discovering what a slippery old fish Johnson is. He doesn't care about honesty, integrity, trust or truth. A commitment from the PM is a meaningless concept. He doesn't do commitment only betrayal. He's a world king with his own private version of reality, he thinks he can do what he likes.
I think Barnier is right. Johnson does not take any of it seriously. He forces crises and then opts for any convenient option, usually at the price of betraying some group or other. Last time it was the DUP, this time it will be the ERG.
