Preparations for a post-Brexit “reset” of relations between the UK and the EU have been thrown into turmoil on Wednesday after EU member states demanded additional concessions from London over fishing rights and youth mobility.
With solely 5 days till an EU-UK summit in London, EU diplomats rejected European Fee makes an attempt to bridge gaps between the 2 sides which have led to more and more fraught negotiations.
A draft EU communiqué setting out the phrases of an improved EU-UK relationship won’t now be finalised till Sunday, only a day forward of the summit, after EU member states dug in over the terms of a deal.
The bloc desires long-term entry to British waters for its fishermen and low cost college charges for its college students as the worth for decreasing the commerce limitations that adopted the UK’s departure from the EU single market and customs union in 2020.
“We’re all sad with lacking progress, particularly on youth mobility . . . and the way the British demand wide-ranging concessions with out providing something in return,” mentioned one EU diplomat briefed on a gathering of the bloc’s ambassadors on Wednesday.
The proposed reset of relations — outlined within the draft EU textual content seen by the FT — seeks to deepen hyperlinks in areas together with security, power and commerce in agrifood merchandise, however would pressure the UK to simply accept some Brussels guidelines and a job for the European Court docket of Justice, in addition to make some funds to the bloc.
One other EU diplomat mentioned the UK had been engaged in “intense lobbying” of the bloc’s governments in current days to oppose an EU decision to impose a time limit on any deal to chop purple tape for British meals exporters if the UK didn’t grant long-term entry to its fishing grounds.
However the EU ambassadors rejected a proposed compromise to make such an settlement “time-limited and renewable” with out specifying a hyperlink to fishing rights.
“Even landlocked member states are vocally supportive of the fee in pushing for a tough hyperlink” between fisheries and a veterinary deal to facilitate exports, a 3rd EU diplomat mentioned.
British supermarkets have lobbied hard for a veterinary deal to clean the circulate of meals, fish and animals between the UK and EU, however trade executives warned privately that the deal would must be everlasting to ship lasting value reductions.
The veterinary settlement would additionally contain “an applicable monetary contribution” by Britain.
UK ministers haven’t denied Conservative celebration claims that the deliberate accord with the EU would reverse key components of Brexit, together with an acceptance of the precept of “dynamic alignment” — in impact taking new guidelines from Brussels.
Tory chief Kemi Badenoch has mentioned Starmer is making ready to “commerce away our sovereignty behind closed doorways” and is reversing the essential rules of Brexit.
However Labour officers mentioned Starmer was not concerned with preventing the “battles of the previous” and wished to construct nearer relations with the EU, bringing financial advantages to Britain, reducing costs for items and constructing higher safety ties.
London and Brussels have moved nearer to an settlement in precept for a “youth mobility scheme”, providing visas to 18-30-year-olds to work, examine or journey in every others’ international locations, elevating the prospect of extra short-term migration to the UK.
The proposed scheme wouldn’t enable contributors a pathway to everlasting residency or the best to assert social safety advantages, with the ultimate variety of accessible visas capped at a most “acceptable for either side”.
EU member states are insisting their college students ought to pay the identical £9,535 tuition charges as their UK counterparts when attending British universities — a stipulation that was faraway from the draft communiqué spurned by EU ambassadors. “Equal charges for EU college students is the intention,” one other EU diplomat mentioned.
Allies of Starmer insisted EU college students won’t be charged the identical charges as their UK counterparts, given the significance of worldwide charges to the funds of Britain’s college sector. “We will’t afford it,” mentioned one.
The draft textual content additionally features a “dispute decision mechanism with an unbiased arbitration panel that ensures that the ECJ is the final word authority for all questions of EU legislation”.
Britain can be invited “at an early stage” to debate forthcoming EU guidelines and can be a part of the “resolution shaping” course of, however would haven’t any vote or veto over proposed modifications.
A UK authorities spokesman mentioned the ECJ’s function in a reset deal can be the identical as within the Brexit withdrawal settlement, the place it could give its opinion on the interpretation of EU legislation, however an arbitration physique would take the final word resolution in any dispute.
The spokesman added: “These are EU inside draft texts. No remaining settlement has been made . . . We’ve got been clear that we’ll at all times act within the nationwide curiosity to safe the most effective outcomes for the UK.”
The European Fee declined to remark.
Further reporting by Alice Hancock in Brussels
