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PM to make trip in 11th-hour effort to break impasse, raising hopes of a deal on trade and security
Boris Johnson will travel to Brussels for a face-to-face summit with the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, in an 11th-hour attempt to break the impasse in the Brexit negotiations.
A long-awaited crunch meeting will be held in the “coming days”, the two leaders said in a joint statement following a phone call lasting over an hour, keeping hopes alive of agreement on a trade and security deal. Sources on both sides pointed to Wednesday or Thursday as the most likely dates.
Paris’s concerns about UK demands are widely shared, analysts, politicians and EU diplomats say
Emmanuel Macron may be talking tougher than the rest of the EU27 as Brexit talks reach their endgame, but despite claims to the contrary in London and by a UK media that always enjoys pointing fingers across the Channel, France is far from isolated.
Headlines such as “Le bust-up” and “France derails Brexit talks” do not reflect European reality, analysts, politicians and EU diplomats have insisted, saying Paris’s fundamental concerns are widely shared across the EU27.
Latest updates: EU’s chief Brexit negotiator says gaps on level playing field, governance and fisheries are still not bridged
RTE’s Europe editor, Tony Connelly, has posted a thread on Twitter with the full comments from Simon Coveney, the Irish foreign minister, this morning.
“Having heard from Michel Barnier this morning, really the news is very downbeat. I would say he is very gloomy, and obviously very cautious about the ability to make progress today.
2/ "There was news last night on some media sources that there was a breakthrough on fishing. That is absolutely not the case from what we’re hearing this morning,” he said.
Mr Coveney said that fisheries, the level playing field and governance remain “very problematic.”
3/ “There really was no progress made yesterday, that’s our understanding and so we’ve got to try to make a breakthrough at some point today, before the two principals, the Commission president and the prime minister speak later on this evening.
4/ “Unfortunately, I’d like to be giving more positive news, but at the moment these negotiations seem stalled, and the barriers to progress are still very much in place.
5/ “We haven’t, through the negotiating teams, found a way to find compromises that can progress these negotiations towards a successful conclusion.
6/ “There is still time. Lunchtime seems a long way away now, given the intensity of these discussions, but that’s where we are, and anyone who is briefing that there are breakthroughs in either of these two big areas...I don’t think is accurate.”
Revolt criticising policies on independence, economy and transgender rights could also see Alex Salmond return to party
Nicola Sturgeon faces a growing rebellion over her leadership style that is expected to involve Alex Salmond being readmitted to the Scottish National party next year.
More than 20 activists, councillors and MPs critical of Sturgeon’s leadership and her policies on independence, the economy and transgender rights were elected last week to the party’s national executive as office bearers and ruling committees, to the shock of party leaders.
Terms on access to UK waters all but finalised, but Franco-German demand over EU laws remains an obstacle
A major breakthrough has been made in Brexit negotiations on the rights of European fleets to fish in UK waters, EU sources said last night, leaving a Franco-German demand that Britain follow EU laws as the final hurdle to a historic trade and security deal.
Sources in Brussels said the two sides had all but finalised terms on the level of access for EU boats to seas within the UK’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone, with a transition period for phasing in changes understood to be between five and seven years.
Peers prepare to back cross-party move to block trade agreements with any country deemed to be committing genocide
Ministers face a double defeat in the Lords over Britain’s trading links with China as peers prepare to back a cross-party move to block trade agreements with any country deemed by the UK high court to be committing genocide.
The manoeuvre is in addition to Labour-led plans in the upper house to require a government human rights risk assessment before backing a Brexit trade deal.
Britain’s credibility as climate champion rests on bold and urgent action, say campaigners
Britain must end all oil and gas extraction in the North Sea as a matter of urgency if it is to maintain its position as a credible climate champion. That was the stark warning issued by green campaigners yesterday in the wake of last week’s decision by Denmark to halt its exploration for new North Sea reserves as part of its commitment to cut carbon emissions and tackle climate change.
The Danish decision is an embarrassment for Boris Johnson who announced last week that Britain would take a lead in the battle against global heating by cutting national carbon emissions by 68% by 2030, a rate faster than any other major economy.
Tens of millions of doses of the Covid-19 vaccine manufactured in Belgium will be flown to Britain by military aircraft to avoid delays at ports caused by Brexit, under contingency plans being developed by the government.
Both the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and senior sources at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed to the Observer on Saturday that large consignments would be brought in from 1 January by air if road, rail and sea routes were subject to widely expected delays after that date.
Phone talk between PM and European commission president Ursula von der Leyen ended without a breakthrough
Brexit negotiations will resume in Brussels on Sunday after Boris Johnson and the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, agreed that a trade and security deal was still possible in the immediate days.
In a joint statement, the two leaders said they would talk again on Monday evening, with the two sides searching for a breakthrough with just three weeks until the UK leaves the single market and customs union.
£350-a-day position as government adviser made via ‘direct appointment process’
A close friend of the prime minister and his fiancee was given an official position at the Home Office without the role being publicly advertised, a freedom of information request has revealed.
Nimco Ali, who is reportedly godmother to the son of Carrie Symonds and Boris Johnson, was appointed adviser on tackling violence against women and girls in October.
Close ally of Macron says Paris may act unilaterally if terms not right as negotiations falter
Downing Street has warned that the Brexit negotiations have hit a “very difficult point”, as France threatened to wield its veto to kill a trade and security deal brought back from London by the EU’s chief negotiator.
With the negotiations hitting troubled waters at the 11th hour, Clément Beaune, France’s European affairs minister and a close ally of president Emmanuel Macron, said his country could act unilaterally if the terms were not right.
UK PM and European commission president to speak on Saturday after negotiators fail to reach agreement
The Brexit talks will enter their final act on Saturday with a shift to direct negotiations between Boris Johnson and the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, following the failure to find agreement in London.
In a joint statement, David Frost, the UK’s chief negotiator, and his EU counterpart, Michel Barnier, said they had not been able to come to terms on the final issues and that the historic trade and security negotiation would be paused.
Progress stalls as robust lobbying from France alleged and tussle ensues over UK subsidies regulator
Brexit negotiations took a sudden step backwards Thursday afternoon Downing Street said, after furious French lobbying pushed the EU to make late demands.
The apparent eleventh hour hardening of the EU position was said to have destabilised the troubled talks, peeling back progress made over the previous 24 hours.
Sites such as Facebook will have to publicly disclose identity of people and entities funding such advertising
The “dirty methods” of the Brexit referendum have been cited as a reason for new EU laws aimed at tackling disinformation and forcing online platforms including Facebook to publicly disclose the identity of people and entities funding political adverts.
Věra Jourová, a vice president of the European commission, said the EU rule-book needed to be updated to deal with on-line political campaigning, as she unveiled draft legislation at a press conference in Brussels.
The education secretary, Gavin Williamson, has claimed the UK was the first country in the world to clinically approve a coronavirus vaccine because the country has “much better” scientists than France, Belgium or the US.
Williamson said he was not surprised the UK was the first to roll out the immunisation because “we’re a much better country than every single one of them”.
Boris Johnson has declared that the nation is no longer resting on the hope of a return to normality by spring but instead has the “certain knowledge” that people can reclaim their lives, as he hailed the arrival of the newly approved Covid-19 vaccine.
The prime minister told a Downing Street press conference on Wednesday that “the scientists have done it”, although he stressed that people should not get carried away with “over-optimism”, insisting that they continue to abide by the rules.
Significant gap remains as two sides enter crucial 48 hours of talks
Boris Johnson has lowered his Brexit demands by asking EU fishing fleets to hand over up to 60% of the value of stocks it takes from British waters, but the gap with Brussels remains wide, Michel Barnier has said ahead of what he described as a crucial 36 hours.
In briefings to EU ambassadors and MEPs in Brussels, the bloc’s chief negotiator said Downing Street had revised its demand down from 80%, but that it was unclear whether the divide could be bridged in the time remaining, prompting member states to caution against rushing into a deal.
Boris Johnson suffered his worst Commons rebellion tonight as 55 Conservative MPs opposed the government’s new coronavirus tiers despite the prime minister pleading with them as they cast their votes.
Johnson was forced to rely on Labour’s abstention from the vote to avoid defeat on a tightened system of measures that will plunge 99% of England into the strictest tiers from Wednesday.
Britain is expected to become the first western country to authorise a coronavirus vaccine, raising the prospect of immunisations beginning weeks ahead of the rest of Europe.
The UK medicines regulator is set to license the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for emergency use within days, and possibly as soon as Wednesday. Britain has ordered 40m doses, of which 10m are expected to be available this year.