11 June 2020

FT: Barnier ‘ready’ to compromise with UK in trade talks

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator on Wednesday said he was willing to reach a compromise on one of the key sticking points in trade deal talks with the UK, as both sides seek to deflect blame for a stalemate.

In a speech, Michel Barnier rejected British calls for him to seek a looser negotiating mandate from EU leaders, insisting he has the political space to find solutions to the impasse in the talks. Mr Barnier indicated he was prepared to review the nature of the EU's “level playing field” demands, which include requiring Britain to continue to apply the bloc's state-aid rules in exchange for a trade deal.

While Brussels is clear that the level playing field must be part of any agreement with Britain, Mr Barnier said its precise form was up for discussion so long as any solution honoured a declaration on future relations that Boris Johnson, prime minister, agreed with EU leaders last year. “I am ready to find compromises, but the British have to accept to translate legally what is written in the political declaration,” Mr Barnier told the EU's economic and social committee. “What we now need to make progress are clear and concrete signals that the UK is open to work on an agreement.”

There is no appetite whatsoever to change the mandate EU official

The political declaration contains more general language on the level playing field than the stipulations EU governments included in the negotiating mandate they handed to Mr Barnier. This is notably the case for state aid, where the declaration says that the EU and UK should each “maintain a robust and comprehensive framework”, built on “appropriate and relevant Union and international standards”.

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