28 August 2020

POLITICO: Pessimism mounts in Brussels over Brexit talks ‘disaster’

‘If we don’t have a breakthrough in the week of September 7, it’s hard to see how we can still avoid a disaster,’ says one EU official. When it comes to Brexit, Brussels is still hoping for the best, but expecting the worst.

The seventh formal round of post-Brexit talks ended last week in a familiar stalemate and mutual blame, capping off a summer of very little progress in the negotiations. Since then, pessimism is mounting in Brussels over the prospects for a deal on the future relationship with the U.K.

"If we don't have a breakthrough in the week of September 7, it's hard to see how we can still avoid a disaster," said one EU official closely involved in the talks. "But the prospects of such a breakthrough don't look good at all."

In his virtual tour of capitals this week, the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier reiterated that message. According to an official from an EU country, Barnier said that given the lack of progress in the talks over the summer, "the prospects of a deal has fallen."

"The Brexit mood is just very, very pessimistic," an EU diplomat said.

October showdown

EU officials insist the next formal round of talks in London in the week of September 7 will be crucial to ruling out a no-deal scenario before the transition period ends on December 31.

In order to get from a political agreement to hundreds of pages of technical negotiated texts on time, both sides will have to see at least the beginnings of a compromise on the most sensitive issues in the next round. This is crucial to pin down the deal by the European Council summit in October. A deal has to be struck before the end of October in order to get it ratified by the European and British parliaments in time.

For that to happen, there is now continuous contact between Brussels and London between formal rounds of talks, officials on both sides of the Channel said.... more at POLITICO £

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