Michel Barnier has accused the British government of “wasting valuable time” and warned that a post-Brexit deal between the EU and the UK looks “unlikely”. With two months to go until the EU-imposed deadline of October, the EU’s chief negotiator said: “Frankly I am disappointed and I am worried.” Barnier said he was “a little surprised” because Boris Johnson had told EU leaders earlier this summer he wanted an outline deal by July. After two days of talks with the British, Barnier said: “Too often this week it felt as if we were going backwards more than forwards.” At this stage an agreement seemed “unlikely”, he said. “I simply do not understand why we are wasting valuable time.” His opposite number, David Frost, struck a more hopeful note, while acknowledging there had been little progress.
The UK’s chief negotiator said: “Agreement is still possible, and it is still our goal, but it is clear that it will not be easy to achieve … We have had useful discussions this week but there has been little progress.” Privately the UK rebuffed Barnier’s accusation of time wasting and blamed the EU for slowing down talks. “The process block now is the EU’s insistence that we must accept their position on state aid and fisheries before we can talk about anything else,” said a senior UK negotiating official. “I mean obviously we’re not going to do that. So it’s frozen.” The downbeat assessments came after two days of talks in Brussels and a private dinner between Barnier and Frost. On Thursday, Frost gave Barnier a fresh draft free-trade agreement in an attempt to break the deadlock. Known as a “consolidated legal text” the document merges existing EU and UK draft texts, in an attempt to speed up an autumn agreement. The British official said they had not expected the text to be discussed this week, but hoped “to inject a spark” in the process. “Really, it’s to make the point that we have been saying that it’s time to move to text-based discussions,” they added. Barnier said the document had been “useful” to understand the UK position, but added that it failed to understand the EU’s red lines on the “level-playing field”, common standards on environment, workers’ rights and state aid to give Britain tariff-free access to the EU single market. Sticking to the EU’s well-established position, Barnier rejected any attempt to fast-forward trade negotiations, ahead of other parts of the talks, such as fishing rights and British hauliers’ rights to deliver goods in the EU. Barnier’s insistence on “parallelism” has long frustrated the British. The EU’s approach “makes it unnecessarily difficult to make progress”, said Frost. Frost, who said last week a deal could be reached in September, added there were “significant areas” to resolve. “Even where there is a broad understanding between negotiators, there is a lot of detail to work through. Time is short for both sides.” The EU has said there will be no trade deal without an agreement on fishing, as it insists European boats maintain access to British waters. On the subject, Barnier said: “We have made no progress whatsoever on the issues that matter.” British negotiators share this view, but accuse the EU of failing to understand that the government wants a major change from the status quo. EU member states, which claim centuries-old fishing rights in British waters, want to maintain current access, although Barnier has hinted he is open to compromise. Similarly, the UK negotiators are frustrated by the EU’s wish to bind Britain tightly to European rules on state aid in exchange for a free-trade deal. The EU fears generous subsidies to UK companies could tilt the playing field against EU firms. “Things are focussing down, not necessarily helpfully, on the issues of state aid, subsidy policy and fisheries policy,” said the UK official. “What’s frustrating here is that Michel Barnier said in his press conference just now, ‘Brexit means Brexit’, which is of course correct. They don’t apply that in this area where they want to see us continuing arrangements that are very like those that we’re bound by as members of the EU,” they added. “When the EU realise that that needs to change it will be much easier to make progress.” The two sides also failed to make progress this week on long-standing disagreement over lorry drivers’ rights after Brexit. Barnier expressed surprise about the UK debate about the loss of haulage rights after Brexit, while stressing that any future access would depend on accepting EU standards on hauliers’ working time and other regulations. Citing recent press reports, he said: “We have seen an emotion that surprised me four years after the Brexit vote … the UK has decided itself to lose the benefits of the single market. It was their choice. It was not our choice.” The talks are scheduled to resume on 7 September in London.