A positive from Covid boycotts the final stretch of the Brexit negotiations

• Keys: a guide not to get lost in the labyrinth of Brexit

"One of my team negotiators has tested positive for Covid-19. David Frost and I have decided to suspend negotiations at our level for a short period of time. The teams will continue to work in compliance with all [safety] guidelines."

This is how the European chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, reported this midday through his Twitter account of the

.

"The health of our teams comes first. I want to thank the European Commission for its immediate help and support," Frost has also written on the same social network.

If obstacles are always inopportune, they seem much more so now, when in theory one is, once and for all,

.

During a good part of the conversations of this exercise the presence of the first two swords was not obligatory.

The technicians and specialists is what they saw face to face all the time, under the baton of the seconds, like the Spanish Clara Martínez Alberola.

But at this stage, however, it is.

The leadership of those who directly have the mandate and the ear of political leaders in all capitals is needed.

A delay, although minimal until the relevant health tests are carried out (seven days without symptoms in Belgium), is more than an inconvenience.

On December 31, what is known as the

ends

, these strange months in which the United Kingdom is no longer a member of the EU, has no commissioner in Brussels or MEPs, but is subject to community laws and courts.

If there is no deal, on January 1 there will be a hard Brexit, no trade deal, border problems and tariffs on products.

To avoid this, both blocks have been negotiating for months.

The goal is not to achieve something perpetual, but at least something basic that avoids the drama, causes economic chaos and muddies future relationships.

The feeling, in Brussels and London, is that we are close to a good enough understanding to be approved by prime ministers and parliaments that must ratify it.

In Paris and other capitals and they were not expecting anything before early December, hopefully.

Time runs faster and faster and the European Council suggests that there are two possibilities.

The first includes a date, November 23.

If the negotiation goes further, it will be almost impossible for all the documentation necessary for ratifications to be in all the official languages ​​of the EU.

It would be working in English and only in English, which in addition to logistical problems could have legal consequences.

If the 27 in any case accepted that as a lesser evil, there would still be a few weeks to hurry up and solve

, the rules and the game that guarantee that the United Kingdom will be a loyal neighbor, and will not take advantage of it to become a tax haven, to dump or to take advantage of its former partners.

The heads of State and Government are seen this Thursday by teleconference and Brexit is going to be one of the main points.

Rumors since last night pointed to the fact that Barnier had not come to inform the community governments as a possible sign that the agreement was close, but the reality has been more prosaic: quarantine.

The former French minister himself passed the virus in the spring.

In any case, the teams will continue to work, partly remotely and the rest with the distance measures and reduced delegations with which they have been negotiating since spring.

Last week they did it from London and this one, from Brussels.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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