Foreign Desk Report
BRUSSELS: The European Union’s executive said on Tuesday it was ready to keep on negotiating a new trade arrangement with Britain, adding that it was “obvious” both sides needed to move to get a Brexit deal.
“We stay ready to negotiate,” European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer told a daily news conference in Brussels. Asked if the bloc recognised that it too, not just Britain, needed to compromise, he added: “In order to come to an agreement, both sides need to meet and this is also obviously the case in this negotiation.”
Meanwhile, Britain wants a “clear assurance” from the European Union that it has fundamentally changed its approach to trade talks for them to resume, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday, saying it had to be a genuine negotiation.
“What the UK’s chief negotiator needs to see is a clear assurance from the EU that it has made a fundamental change in approach to the talks and that this is going to be a genuine negotiation rather than one side being expected to make all of the moves,” the spokesman told reporters. He added that the UK’s chief negotiator, David Frost, would have to be satisfied from officials in Brussels that this was the case to be able to advise Johnson to resume the talks.
Moreover, British Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said on Monday that he welcomed the constructive move from the European Union (EU) as the regional bloc confirmed to intensify talks with Britain on post-Brexit relationship.
“It is the case that my colleague David Frost was in conversation with Michel Barnier and I believe it is the case that Michel Barnier has agreed both to the intensification of talks and also to working on legal texts,” Gove told parliament. His comments came after EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, who had a phone conversation with his British counterpart, David Frost, tweeted: “I confirmed that the EU remains available to intensify talks in London this week, on all subjects, and based on legal texts.”
“We now wait for the UK’s reaction,” Barnier said. The Brussels-London negotiations were left in limbo when EU leaders last week called on Britain to budge in order to secure a trade deal. “It has been reported that there has been a constructive move on part of the EU and I welcome that and obviously we need to work on the basis of the proposed intensification they propose,” Gove said, adding that he preferred to look forward in optimism.
