Brussels (AFP)

The EU is ready to negotiate a post-Brexit deal with the UK "until the end of the year and beyond" if necessary, EU negotiator Michel Barnier said on Tuesday, refusing to have his hands linked by a deadline.

"Our door will remain open until the end of the year and beyond," he told representatives of the member states during a point in Brussels on the state of the discussions.

The Frenchman thus intends to guard against the pressure of the calendar, even if it means accepting the shock of a "no deal" from January 1, if an agreement has not been reached on that date when the United Kingdom - which officially left the EU on January 31 - will abandon the single market for good.

With less than ten days of the final rupture, the access of European fishermen to British waters remains the main obstacle in the negotiations, underlined Mr Barnier.

According to meeting participants, he said the EU had rejected a British offer on fishing, deemed unacceptable, which responded to a European offer made at the end of last week.

Although of low economic weight, fishing is an important political and social for several Member States, including France and the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom has made it the symbol of its sovereignty regained after the divorce with the 'EU.

- "Final offer" -

The negotiations focus on sharing the some 650 million euros of products caught each year by the EU in UK waters and the length of the adjustment period for European fishermen.

For the British, fishery products in European waters represent around 110 million euros.

Brussels had proposed to give up about 25% of these 650 million after a transition period of six years.

London, which intends to regain control of its waters, proposed to the EU to give up 35% of non-pelagic species (fished on the high seas), but 60% of its catches including pelagic species, all on a period of 3 years, according to a European source.

According to this same source, several member states have asked the negotiator not to go further in the European proposal.

"They affirmed that the European offer already raised concerns and could only be a final offer", insisted a European diplomat.

"The United Kingdom is not yet making enough progress to reach a fair agreement on fisheries", regretted a European source.

- Already too late -

On other subjects, in particular how to settle disputes and measures to protect against unfair competition, "progress has been made", said the same source, for whom most of the questions are "provisionally closed or close to being concluded. 'a deal".

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke to each other again on Monday evening, to discuss Brexit but also Covid-19, at a time when the United Kingdom is cut off from the world because of a more virulent variant of the coronavirus.

Boris Johnson reiterated Monday evening that the conditions of a "no deal" "would be more than satisfactory for the United Kingdom".

Michel Barnier was also due to meet around 5:00 p.m. GMT with a group of MEPs who are following the negotiations.

A possible agreement must theoretically be ratified by the European Parliament so that it can enter into force on January 1, but the elected Europeans, who had set a deadline last Sunday, consider that it is now too late.

Without the entry into force of an agreement on that date, trade between the EU and London will be carried out according to the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO), synonymous with customs duties and quotas, with serious consequences for economies already shaken by the pandemic.

© 2020 AFP