Post-Brexit: British and EU negotiators in videoconference

Text by: RFI Follow

British and Europeans will meet from Monday onwards in videoconference for a new round of discussions. It is a question of negotiating the future relationship of the EU with the United Kingdom. Negotiations which for the moment do not seem very fruitful.

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Time is running out, and yet it hardly advances. There is the complicated coronavirus pandemic; and then the last discussions ended with a statement of failure: on the one hand the European negotiator Michel Barnier who got angry against London's refusal to seriously engage on a certain number of fundamental points, and the other the British who indeed recognize limited progress.

Discussions are still stalling over the shape of the new relations between the EU and London. The British want several agreements, the EU wants one comprehensive.

Then there is, for example, the issue of fishing. An explosive record. British and Europeans have committed to finding an agreement before the end of the year. And any extension in the discussions is supposed to be decided by the end of June, in a little over a month therefore.

And for the moment the United Kingdom rejects this option, despite the delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. This seems to herald difficult discussions as London opened a new front in parallel.

The British began negotiating a trade deal with Washington last week.

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• Brexit
• European Union

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