London (AFP)

UK-Europe negotiations to reach post-Brexit trade deal resume Monday in British capital, but chances of reaching compromise are dwindling as London deadline nears .

Britain welcomes European negotiator Michel Barnier on Monday after an initial round of interviews the previous week in Brussels, which the two sides had ended a day early due to "serious differences", announced Mr. Barnier. His British counterpart, David Frost, had spoken to him of "significant differences".

Leaving the EU on January 31 after 47 of a stormy marriage, the United Kingdom is now negotiating with Brussels to try to establish an advantageous commercial relationship with the European bloc at the end of the transition period, set for December 31. .

Discussions have so far not allowed real progress as the deadline is fast approaching, and with it the risk of a devastating "no deal" for economies already very weakened by the pandemic of new coronavirus.

For Chancellor Angela Merkel, the 27-nation bloc "should prepare for the possibility of an agreement not being reached," she said, taking over from the European presidency on Wednesday.

This outcome scares British companies, who wish to be informed as soon as possible of the possibility or not of an agreement, in order to promptly launch an expensive emergency plan in the event of a "no deal".

Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to be fixed as early as July on the possibility of this agreement, while the Europeans are targeting the month of October, believing that this leaves enough time for the Member States and the United Kingdom to ratify the treaty on their new relationship, which would take effect on January 1, 2021.

- Litany of disputes-

A few weeks before the deadline set by the Conservative Prime Minister, the differences between the two parties remain significant.

London thus refuses to accept that future commercial disputes fall under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. The United Kingdom also wants a much larger share of the fishing areas it currently shares with the bloc of 27 to be reserved for it.

The other stumbling block in the negotiations concerns the UK's margin of autonomy compared to European standards in terms of state aid to the economy, the environment and labor law.

The negotiations which will open on Monday in London will try to speed things up, after a difficult week in Brussels and a first round of discussion which had taken place in the spring by videoconference, due to the epidemic of new coronavirus.

If the two parties still cannot agree, only the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO), with their high customs duties, would apply from January 2021 to trade relations between these former partners.

© 2020 AFP