Germany calls on UK to show more realism in Brexit negotiations

Angela Merkel’s government has called for more realism from the UK in the ongoing trade and security talks, after the EU capitals were given a “sobering” update by Michel Barnier following the recent round of Brexit negotiations.

After a presentation by the EU’s chief negotiator to ambassadors from the 27 member states on Friday, a spokesman for the German government, which holds the rolling EU presidency, said the bloc was ready to move negotiations quickly forward but “expressed the need for more realism in London”.

The comments will be a blow to Downing Street, where it had been hoped the resolution of the EU’s internal budget and recovery fund debate would allow Merkel and the other leaders to intervene and unblock the negotiation following a month of little progress.

“With the [budget] now wrapped up we hope member states will become more engaged in this process in Brussels and get them moving forward politically in a helpful way,” a UK source close to the negotiations said.

The two sides completed their latest round of negotiations in London on Thursday without being able to agree on the basic outlines of a deal to reassure businesses about the future, which Boris Johnson had said in June should be possible.

But despite publicly warning on Thursday that a deal by the end of the year appeared “unlikely” given the British position on fisheries and Brussels’ demands for a “level playing field”, sources said Barnier had not been overly pessimistic in his presentation on Friday.

He warned the ambassadors that he believed negotiations needed to be wrapped up by the beginning of October due to the lengthy ratification process.

Echoing the language recently used by the UK’s chief negotiator, David Frost, Barnier said that even if the deal on offer was “low quality”, as recently claimed by the British official, a “zero tariff, zero quota” agreement was a prize worth having.

He added the EU would be open to revisiting some issues next year to strike separate agreements if the current negotiation was successful.

The two main obstacles to a deal remain the access of European fishing fleets to British waters and arrangements to ensure neither side can undercut the other by lowering regulatory standards or unfairly subsidising industry.

It is understood a number of the eight member states with the greatest interest in fishing access reiterated to the room of ambassadors that they would not agree to a deal without agreement on fisheries.

Last week’s talks on fishing access focused on quota-sharing arrangements and the list of stocks for which shares need to be agreed. Barnier claimed the UK was effectively excluding European fleets from key stocks of fish in a move that risked destroying the bloc’s fishing industry.

(January 31, 1961)  Brefusal

The French president, Charles de Gaulle, vetoes Britain’s entry to EEC, accusing the UK of a “deep-seated hostility” towards the European project.

(January 31, 1973)  Brentry

With Sir Edward Heath having signed the accession treaty the previous year, the UK enters the EEC in an official ceremony complete with a torch-lit rally, dickie-bowed officials and a procession of political leaders, including former prime ministers Harold Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home.

(January 31, 1975)  Referendum

The UK decides to stay in the common market after 67% voted "yes". Margaret Thatcher, later to be leader of the Conservative party, campaigned to remain.

(January 31, 1984)  'Give us our money back'

Margaret Thatcher negotiated what became known as the UK rebate with other EU members after the "iron lady" marched into the former French royal palace at Fontainebleau to demand “our own money back” claiming for every £2 contributed we get only £1 back” despite being one of the “three poorer” members of the community.

It was a move that sowed the seeds of Tory Euroscepticism that was to later cause the Brexit schism in the party.

(January 31, 1988)  The Bruges speech

Thatcher served notice on the EU community in a defining moment in EU politics in which she questioned the expansionist plans of Jacques Delors, who had remarked that 80% of all decisions on economic and social policy would be made by the European Community within 10 years with a European government in “embryo”. That was a bridge too far for Thatcher.

(January 31, 1989)  The cold war ends

Collapse of Berlin wall and fall of communism in eastern Europe, which would later lead to expansion of EU.

(January 31, 1990) 'No, no, no'

Divisions between the UK and the EU deepened with Thatcher telling the Commons in an infamous speech it was ‘no, no, no’ to what she saw as Delors’ continued power grab. Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper ratchets up its opposition to Europe with a two-fingered “Up yours Delors” front page.

(January 31, 1992)  Black Wednesday

A collapse in the pound forced prime minister John Major and the then chancellor Norman Lamont to pull the UK out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism.

(January 31, 1993)  The single market

On 1 January, customs checks and duties were removed across the bloc. Thatcher hailed the vision of “a single market without barriers – visible or invisible – giving you direct and unhindered access to the purchasing power of over 300 million of the world’s wealthiest and most prosperous people".

(January 31, 1993) Maastricht treaty

Tory rebels vote against the treaty that paved the way for the creation of the European Union. John Major won the vote the following day in a pyrrhic victory.

(January 31, 1997)  Repairing the relationship

Tony Blair patches up the relationship. Signs up to social charter and workers' rights.

(January 31, 1999)  Ukip

Nigel Farage elected an MEP and immediately goes on the offensive in Brussels. “Our interests are best served by not being a member of this club,” he said in his maiden speech. “The level playing field is about as level as the decks of the Titanic after it hit an iceberg.”

(January 31, 2003) The euro

Chancellor Gordon Brown decides the UK will not join the euro.

(January 31, 2004)

EU enlarges to to include eight countries of the former eastern bloc including Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

(January 31, 2007)

EU expands again, allowing Romania and Bulgaria into the club.

(January 31, 2015) Migrant crisis

Anti-immigration hysteria seems to take hold with references to “cockroches” by Katie Hopkins in the Sun and tabloid headlines such as “How many more can we take?” and “Calais crisis: send in the dogs”.

(February 1, 2016)

David Cameron returns from Brussels with an EU reform package - but it isn't enough to appease the Eurosceptic wing of his own party

(June 23, 2016)  Brexit referendum

The UK votes to leave the European Union, triggering David Cameron's resignation and paving the way for Theresa May to become prime minister

(January 31, 2020)  Britain leaves the EU

After years of parliamentary impasse during Theresa May's attempt to get a deal agreed, the UK leaves the EU.

On level playing field clauses, both sides have agreed there should be a “non-regression” on labour, the environment and climate standards as they stand at the end of the transition period.

The EU is demanding a “forward-looking” mechanism to ensure there is no regulatory undercutting in the future should the EU further develop its rulebook.

There is a deadlock on state aid rules, with Brussels calling for the UK to publish its plans for controlling subsidies once the UK is outside the single market and customs union. Downing Street has so far appeared reluctant to respond to Barnier’s pressure, insisting its rulebook is wholly independent from the EU now the country has left the bloc.

EU sources said there was concern in Brussels that interest in striking a deal was waning in London but that an agreement in September remained the most likely outcome given the economic damage of failure.