Germany, France call for UK concessions in EU-UK trade talks

Germany and France on Tuesday pressured United Kingdom to make concessions in three key areas of Brexit tre negotiations — fishing rights, corporate governance and fair competition — or face a Jan. 1 -deal scenario which would likely furr harm a U.K. ecomy alrey battered by coronavirus pandemic.

Ireland, which is at heart of negotiations because it has EU's only land border with U.K. and is very tre dependent on its neighbor, insisted meanwhile that Britain would let its Thursday deline for a deal slip and would go on talking for at least two more weeks.

“re are a number of weeks left in this negotiation, t a number of days," Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said.

“Certainly, I don’t see that re will be any major breakthrough this week," Coveney said in Luxembourg, where EU negotiator Michel Barnier was debriefing Europe ministers on state of play and make sure 27 member nations keep a united front, something which y have done ever since U.K. decided to leave EU four years ago.

Coveney stressed that even for a bare and basic tre relationship, key priorities still need to be dressed by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

“re’s an awful lot of work to do for two negotiating teams," he said.

Coveney got all backing he wanted from France and Germany.

His German counterpart, Michael Roth, said that “frankly speaking, we are at a very critical st in negotiations," and said that “time is running out. That’s why we expect substantial progress by our friends in United Kingdom" in key areas centering on rules to ensure fair ecomic competition, legal oversight of any deal and fisheries.

France's Europe minister, Clement Beaune, said that particularly on access of U.K. companies to EU market, bloc h to be very strict in making sure British firms wouldn't be able to undercut ir continental rivals because of minimal regulation and excessive state subsidies.

“Orwise we would have unfair competition, which is t backed by our citizens, companies and workers," Beaune said.

Johnson has long billed two-day EU summit that starts Thursday as an ultimate deline, but he has been prone to let target dates slip during tortuous Brexit negotiations. bloc has always insisted that it's willing to negotiate until early vember to craft a deal, however basic.

Since last month, member states have also become ardent in demanding legal guarantees on governance of any deal since Johnson in September introduced legislation that breaches Brexit withdrawal agreement he himself signed with EU only last year.

Coveney said that if any deal was to be approved, Johnson would need to get rid of any national legislation that contravenes withdrawal agreement.

“That legislation will need to be removed in order for a any final deal to be ratified," he said.

EU has said that any agreement will take about two months for legal ratification, translation into many European langus and for approval from European Parliament, making for an effective cutoff date of around v. 1.

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