Brexit: Boris Johnson warns securing deal is
'looking very, very difficult'
PM says he wants an agreement but people need to be
ready for changes on 1 January
Daniel
Boffey in Brussels and Jon Henley in Paris
Tue 8 Dec
2020 10.31 GMT
Boris
Johnson has warned that securing a deal at an imminent Brexit summit in
Brussels will be “very difficult” but backed “the power of sweet reason to get
this thing over the line”.
The prime
minister, who agreed during a phone call on Monday to meet the European
commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, in the Belgian capital, said he
wanted an agreement.
“You’ve got
to be optimistic, you’ve got to believe there’s the power of sweet reason to
get this thing over the line,” Johnson said. “But I’ve got to tell you it’s
looking very, very difficult at the moment.
“We’ll do
our level best, but I would just say to everybody – be in good cheer, there are
great options ahead for our country on any view. But the key thing is, on 1
January, whatever happens there’s going to be change and people need to get
ready for that change.”
Asked if he
would try to do a deal right up until the wire, Johnson told reporters: “Yeah,
of course. We’re always hopeful but you know there may come a moment when we
have to acknowledge that it’s time to draw stumps and that’s just the way it
is.”
The prime
minister insisted he would be willing to leave the transition period without a
deal. He said: “We will prosper mightily under any version and if we have to go
for an Australian solution then that’s fine too.” Australia and the EU do not
have a free trade deal and there are tariffs on goods, including 48% on lamb
and 84% on beef.
In a joint
statement on Monday, the two leaders agreed in the coming days they would hold
a make-or-break meeting. Sources on both sides pointed to Wednesday or Thursday
morning as the most likely times.
EU leaders
will meet on Thursday, when they could sign off on an agreement or trigger
their preparations for a no-deal outcome, including temporary legislation to
keep planes in the air.
The UK’s
chief negotiator, David Frost, joined commission officials on Tuesday morning
to prepare a document for the two leaders on the outstanding issues over fair
competition, EU access to British fishing waters and the terms of a dispute
mechanism in the event of treaty breaches.
Germany’s
European affairs minister, Michael Roth, said the result of the summit would
depend on the UK government’s “political will” to seal a deal.
He said:
“It is good that every effort is undertaken to find a sustainable and good
solution. We want to reach a deal but not at any price. What we need is
political will in London. Let me be very clear: our future relationship is
based on trust and confidence. It is precisely this confidence that is at stake
in our negotiation right now.”
Roth was
speaking at a virtual meeting of EU ministers preparing for Thursday’s summit
of the 27 member states’ leaders.
Clément
Beaune, France’s European affairs minister, said his government would not bow
to time pressure with less than three weeks to go before the UK leaves the
single market and customs union with or without a deal.
He said:
“The truth, the facts, is that there is still a negotiation ongoing … Concretely,
it’s complicated and we don’t want to give in to a form of pressure from the
British.”
He said
fisheries was a major issue. “That’s 6,000 jobs in France. It’s a big deal.
There is no reason that just because it’s important for the British, we say ‘OK,
we give up, you deny us access to your waters and we will go elsewhere’. That’s
not possible. We will make efforts, compromises, yes, we have said that
honestly to the French fishermen. But sacrifice our fishermen – no. And the
British know it …
“Yes, we
are a bit fed up. But we cannot say that we will slam the door and walk away
because we’re tired of it all.”
Beaune
repeated France’s threat to veto the deal if it failed to protect French
fishermen’s rights to operate in British seas and offered the UK the
opportunity to undercut EU standards.
He said:
“We will look at the deal when it’s on the table and we will analyse whether or
not it defends our interests. If when we look at it we see that it is not as
good as not having a deal, we will not hesitate to veto it – as is the case
with every other European country who will do this evaluation.
“I do not
want to declare these talks a failure. I think we still have some time to
negotiate – a few days – and after we have to say clearly, because it’s important
for our fishermen, our businesses, we have to say yes, or no.”
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