Brussels calls "disappointing" the third round of Brexit negotiations with the United Kingdom

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In order to understand the state of the negotiations between the EU and the United Kingdom regarding Brexit, it is essential to keep in mind the time frame. It is, in a way, the only decisive thing. After just three rounds of conversations, the last two also by teleconference, it could be said that everything is going according to normal patterns. Positions have been presented, there are profound differences, diverse and sometimes conflicting priorities. Many red lines. The parties are beginning to get to know each other, to probe, to see where they can give in and haggle. The logical thing, if the expression is allowed.

The problem is that this is not a normal trade negotiation , there is no very wide horizon, of years and decades even ahead, as happened with Japan or Canada, to cite recent cases. The push and pull has to be closed within seven months and 16 days, and some vital decisions must be made even at the end of next month. And in those circumstances, the negotiation goes wrong.

"The third round has been disappointing," Michel Barnier lamented this Friday from Brussels. "There seems to be a real lack of understanding about the objective mechanical consequences of the British choice to leave. The UK will have to be more realistic. It will have to go beyond this lack of understanding," added the Frenchman. "I regret that we have made very little progress towards an agreement on the most important pending issues between us," said British negotiator David Frost for his part .

Little surprise. There is part of sincere disappointment, frustration and political theater. Both sides are aware that a higher level of impulse , by heads of state, government and institutions is necessary to make important decisions. Because technical mandates have limits. "It is very clear that a Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, with other agreements on issues such as law enforcement, civil nuclear energy or aviation, all in line with the Political Declaration, could be agreed without major difficulties in the time available. Both sides have submitted full legal texts, there are many precedents and clearly there is a good understanding between the negotiators, "adds Frost.

This phrase, perhaps complicated for the uninitiated, summarizes well one of the two great open questions. The first is that the underlying discrepancies remain the same . The 27 fear, and more and more, that an ex-partner who is a few minutes from their coasts becomes a competitor with much looser rules in terms of State aid, taxation and competition. That imposes limitations on fishing grounds. And that all disputes that may arise with Brussels do not have a clear and resistant legal umbrella, if London flatly refuses to accept a key role for the Court of Justice of the EU.

For its part, the United Kingdom does not see the discourse on the recovery of sovereignty compatible with the demands of its still partners. "It is difficult to understand why the EU insists on an ideological approach that makes it more difficult to reach a mutually beneficial agreement," said British chief negotiator David Frost today.

"The main obstacle to an agreement is the EU's insistence on including a set of new and unbalanced proposals in the so-called 'level playing field', which would bind this country to EU laws or standards or condition our regimes internal laws. In some ways this is unprecedented in the Free Trade Agreements and is not foreseen in the Political Declaration. As soon as the EU recognizes that we will not conclude an agreement on that basis, we will be able to move forward, "said Frost.

The second key question is the forms, how the negotiation should be. The British strategy is to bet on a pragmatic approach , the one that benefits your interests the most. Focus on a few issues, especially the simplest ones, to have something solid in December. And then it will be seen. The EU, by contrast, strongly disagrees, and advocates again and again to tackle everything, the easy and the difficult. Without shortcuts. And he reiterates, through Barnier's mouth, that the United Kingdom must start to be more realistic, understanding that if it does not ask for an extension in the coming weeks, it is over in December and it will be very hard. And that it is not going to market with the EU Internal Market to provide facilities to outside companies.

"Without the question of 'level playing field' and without a balanced fishing pact, there will be no agreement on a trade association," the Frenchman has warned once again, rejecting that to be successful now you can make a "copy and paste" of agreements such as those signed with Canada or Japan . The United Kingdom is a unique situation and although there are similar things, the agreement must be tailored. For which "new dynamism is indispensable".

Approach and friction

Not everything has been negative. London introduced a legal text for the first time and there are certain lines of approach on fishing issues. Boris Johnson's team has also reluctantly admitted this week that goods entering Northern Ireland will have to undergo certain controls, but it continues to put a strain on freedom of movement and customs procedures that the 27 consider essential on the Irish border. .

But the friction is constant. On Thursday, the Commission opened an infringement procedure against the United Kingdom for not complying during these months of the Transition Period with the community laws on freedom of movement of European citizens and their families . British law places certain limits on the potential beneficiaries of that freedom, as well as on administrative remedies to protest a decision. What in Brussels's opinion means breaking a 2004 directive, as well as the rights provided for in articles 21, 45 and 49 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU.

"UK deficiencies in the implementation and transposition of the EU free movement law also affect the implementation of citizens' rights under the Withdrawal Agreement," advises the Commission, which has sent a formal notification letter to London, the first step in the infringement process. The UK now has four months to take the necessary steps to address the identified deficiencies. Otherwise, the Commission would proceed to the second step: a reasoned opinion.

Precisely on the subject of these rights, Michael Gove yesterday sent a letter to his counterpart in the committee that oversees the negotiations, to call it that, to the community vice president Maros Sefcovic, reiterating that his Government takes "very seriously" this issue of citizens' rights, but from another angle.

In the letter he defends that the process that they have established is the United Kingdom to analyze the situation of the Europeans is "simple, free and online" and that it has received 3.4 million applications for residence, of which 3.1 million have been processed with 58% status of consenting residents . And yet London sees some deficiencies and shortcomings in reciprocal application in different European countries.

But he complains bitterly, and quite rightly, that some countries have not yet opened the process for Brits to apply for residency and that others have offered a very small window, compared to his 27 months. Likewise, he regrets that in some places the procedures are very slow, involving extensive paperwork and face-to-face meetings, something impossible now. And that once the formalities are finished, compared to the average five days in London to resolve a file, there are national authorities in the EU that take weeks or months.

An issue that is also part of the negotiation. For many months, since 2016, the British side has usually been the one that did not comply or showed more fissures. The letter is a good reminder that problems are everywhere and now, with the confinements, the deficiencies are much more clearly exposed. And also the consequences of an abrupt exit without a parachute.

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