Brexit Talks Archives - Iran News Daily

Brexit Talks Continues in London

reporter 1222 — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 10:30:31 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Brexit talks with the European Union resume Monday in London with few signs of compromise on a new trade agreement and time running out to avoid a messy split.

London will host EU negotiator Michel Barnier after a round of face-to-face Brexit talks ended a day early last week in Brussels because of deep divides in the sides’ approach.

Barnier said after ending the negotiations last Thursday that “serious divergences remain”.

His UK counterpart David Frost said there were “significant differences” that meant the sides were still searching for basic “principles underlying an agreement”.

And German Chancellor Angela Merkel said upon taking over help of the EU’s rotating presidency Wednesday that both her country and the 27-nation bloc “should prepare for the case that an agreement is not reached”, AFP reported.

Britain followed through on the results of a 2016 EU membership referendum and officially pulled out of the bloc in January after nearly half a century.

But a standstill transition period that ends on December 31 allows the UK to effectively function as if it were still a member.

London and Brussels are supposed to agree on new trade terms in the meantime that prevent ties from reverting to the minimum standards — and accompanying high tariffs and quotas — of the World Trade Organization.

British businesses fear that possibility and want Prime Minister Boris Johnson to give them guidance as soon as possible about whether a trade deal is feasible or not.

This would give them a chance to trigger costly contingency planning aimed at disrupting trade and business activity as little as possible.

But EU officials feel much less pressure to strike a quick agreement and are suggesting that one could still be done by late October.

Brussels has shrugged off Johnson’s repeated threats to walk away and accept very distant relations with the bloc that complicated trade but gave Britain broader independence.

The differences between the sides remain vast.

London refuses to accept jurisdiction over trade disputes by the European Court of Justice and wants a much bigger part of fishing waters it now shares with the bloc.

A separate dispute concerns the degree to which Britain must follow EU rules on state aid to important economic sectors as well as labor and environmental rules.

London argues that the entire point of leaving the bloc was to give Britain a bigger say over its own affairs.

Brussels counters that Britain cannot expect to undercut the bloc on price through looser standards and still expect a favorable trade deal.

The talks in London are being held in an intensified format that follows video conference discussion held at the European height of the coronavirus crisis.

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Brexit A Warning for Europe, Says Angela Merkel

reporter 1222 — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 12:37:05 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Angela Merkel said Brexit is a warning for the EU and that the continent will need to start doing things differently.

In an interview just two weeks before Brexit operating, Germany’s chancellor gave a warning and said Europe needed to up its game to compete.

The union needed to become more “attractive, innovative, creative, a good place for research and education,” she told the Financial Times.

She added, “Competition can then be very productive.”

The enigmatic German leader has said little about Brexit. Last year she broke her silence to warn that Britain was a potential competitor to Europe after it left, The Independent reported.

But she defended the principles of the European project and issued a veiled warning that the UK could suffer from diminished influence outside the union.

“I see the European Union as our life insurance,” she told the newspaper.

“Germany is far too small to exert geopolitical influence on its own, and that’s why we need to make use of all the benefits of the single market.”

Merkel argued that international institutions like European integration were “essentially a lesson learned from the second world war and the preceding decades” whose memory is fading.

Germany’s leader since 2005 and a contemporary of Tony Blair, Merkel is serving what she has said will be her last term as chancellor.

Having already stepped down as leader of her center-right CDU party to make way for a successor, the chancellor said she will not contest the next Bundestag elections, which are scheduled for 2021.

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UK PM Claims Huge Progress in Brexit Talk

reporter 1222 — Sun, 15 Sep 2019 10:11:05 +0000

“It’s going to take a lot of work between now and October 17” when EU leaders gather for their final summit before Britain’s scheduled exit from the bloc, he told the Mail on Sunday newspaper.

“But I’m going to go to that summit and I’m going to get a deal, I’m very confident. And if we don’t get a deal then we’ll come out on October 31.”

His comments came ahead of talks with European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker and the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, in Luxembourg on Monday.

In an odd analogy, Johnson compared Britain to the comic book character Hulk.

“The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets and he always escaped, no matter how tightly bound in he seemed to be — and that is the case for this country,” he said, AFP reported.

“We will come out on October 31 and we will get it done, believe me.”

But the extent of the parliamentary opposition to Johnson’s approach was laid bare on Saturday when one of his Conservative MPs defected to the pro-European Liberal Democrats.

Former universities minister Sam Gyimah has strongly criticized Johnson’s threat to leave the EU with no deal, and has called for a re-run of the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Johnson took office in July promising to leave the EU next month with or without a deal, but has faced resistance from the House of Commons.

Rebel Conservatives joined opposition MPs last week to rush through a law to delay Brexit until January if he does not get a deal in time.

Johnson wants to renegotiate the terms struck by his predecessor, Theresa May, which were rejected by parliament — but EU leaders insist the deal is the best on offer.

The main sticking point is the so-called backstop plan to keep open Britain’s border with Ireland, which could keep Britain tied to EU trade rules long after Brexit.

“When I got this job everybody was saying there can be absolutely no change to the withdrawal agreement,” Johnson said.

“They have already moved off that and, as you know, there’s a very, very good conversation going on about how to address the issues of the Northern Irish border.

“A huge amount of progress is being made.”

However, Downing Street has downplayed any major breakthrough in Monday’s talks.

Johnson repeated that “under no circumstances” would he delay Brexit.

Twenty-one Conservative MPs defied Johnson to back the legislation blocking a “no deal” Brexit, and were swiftly expelled from the governing party.

One of them was Gyimah, who now becomes the Liberal Democrats’ 18th MP in the 650-seat House of Commons.

The 43-year-old was once viewed as a rising star in the Conservatives and briefly ran against Johnson for the party leadership.

But he said Saturday: “Boris Johnson created a stark choice for moderate, progressive MPs in the Conservative party — to accept a no deal Brexit or walk away from public life.

“I choose to continue to fight for the values I have always believed in, as a Liberal Democrat.”

His defection is the sixth to the Lib Dems this year, and comes just days after a similar move by Conservative MP Phillip Lee.

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