Brussels (AFP)

After ten months of tense and laborious negotiations, the European Union and the United Kingdom seemed on Wednesday close to an agreement on their future trade relationship, which would allow them to avoid in extremis a "no deal" just eight days before final break.

"We are in the final phase," said a European source.

A second source evoked "great chances" of concluding an agreement in the evening.

The negotiations have since Monday been in the hands of the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who increase the exchanges to wrest an agreement, according to European sources.

The access of European fishermen to British waters remained on Wednesday morning the ultimate sticking point of the discussions, moreover almost completed, including on previously problematic subjects, such as how to settle disputes and measures to protect against any unfair competition.

A deal on Wednesday or Thursday would theoretically leave enough time for it to come into effect on January 1, when the UK, which officially left the EU on January 31, has abandoned the single market for good.

Member states also began Wednesday afternoon to launch the process in "informal discussions", said European sources.

Without an agreement, trade between the EU and London would be carried out according to the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO), synonymous with customs duties, quotas, as well as administrative formalities that could lead to massive traffic jams and traffic jams. delays in delivery.

A particularly delicate scenario for the United Kingdom, already battered by a more virulent variant of the coronavirus which isolated it from the rest of the world.

Despite its low economic weight, fishing is of political and social importance for several Member States, including France, the Netherlands, Denmark and Ireland.

But the United Kingdom made it the symbol of its regained sovereignty after the divorce.

- "Movement of the British" -

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

The EU this week rejected an offer it deemed unacceptable from London, asking it to give up 35% of non-pelagic species (caught on the high seas), but 60% of its catch including pelagic species, all on a 3-year transition period.

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

"The ball is in Boris Johnson's court", said a European diplomat, for whom the EU proposal can only be a "final offer" given the concerns it has already raised in some member states , especially Denmark.

"Either a breakthrough is recorded on Wednesday with a movement of the British, or the negotiations switch to next week, after the holidays," he added.

The European negotiator, Michel Barnier, in any case told the member states on Tuesday that the EU was ready to negotiate "until the end of the year and beyond" if the blockage on fishing persisted.

Objective: to guard against the pressure of the calendar, even if it means accepting the shock of a "no deal" on January 1st.

Reaching a text in just ten months would be a feat for negotiators, especially for an agreement of this scope, since such trade talks usually take years.

The task was further complicated by the Covid-19, which forced the negotiators to exchange several weeks by videoconference and sometimes even to suspend the discussions because of positive cases in the negotiating teams.

If an agreement is confirmed, the EU would offer its former member state unprecedented access without customs duties or quotas to its huge market of 450 million consumers, a first.

© 2020 AFP