Boris Johnson will tell European Union leaders on Monday that they must conclude Brexit talks by autumn “at the latest” to give certainty to companies affected by the UK’s exit from the European Union.
The Prime Minister, his chief Brexit negotiator David Frost, and the Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove are due to hold “high-level talks” with Charles Michel, the President of the European Council, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, and David Sassoli, the President of the European Parliament.
The Political Declaration agreed between the UK and EU last autumn set out that the high-level meeting must “take stock of progress with the aim of agreeing actions to move forward in negotiations on the future relationship”.
There will now be talks in each week of the five weeks between June 29 and July 27 to try to strike a deal. Number 10 sources said on Sunday that Mr Johnson “will make it clear that the negotiation now needs to be swiftly concluded, with certainty provided to the public and businesses by the autumn at the latest”. That is later than a deadline of “the end of summer” that was being briefed by Number 10 late last week.
Mr Johnson will use the meeting – held by video conference because of social distancing caused by the coronavirus pandemic – to press for a “high-quality Free Trade Agreement” (FTA) that is “consistent with others the EU have agreed, as part of a balanced overall outcome”.
The Prime Minister will make clear that the UK will be prepared to leave the EU “whatever happens” at the end of the 11-month implementation period on Dec 31, which followed the UK’s exit on Jan 31 this year.
Last week the UK formally told the EU that it would not be seeking an extension to the Brexit implementation period at the end of this year.
A UK Government spokesman added: “The high-level meeting was always envisaged as a moment to push the negotiations forward. We now need to get this resolved and deliver certainty for businesses at home and in the EU as soon as possible.
‘There’s a high-quality FTA to be done, based on the agreements the EU has already reached with other countries. But, whatever happens, we will be ready for January 1, when we will be back in control of our laws, borders and money.’”
The EU will counter that Michel Barnier, its chief negotiator, has been saying for months that Brussels needs a deal by October to allow for time to get it ratified by the European Parliament.
Both sides have expressed hope that the meeting will bring fresh political impetus and a breakthrough over fishing rights and a level playing field over regulations. However sources in Brussels are not expecting that to happen with EU leaders preoccupied with a week of talks later this week about the EU bloc’s approach to the coronavirus crisis.
Raoul Ruperel, a former special adviser to the PM on Europe, told The Telegraph that without any movement on fishing, a level playing field and state aid rules “there is real risk the negotiations, even with an increased pace, struggle to make any breakthroughs. Which would increase the risk of there being no agreement at the end of the year”.
Shanker Singham, a former Brexit adviser to Liam Fox when he was trade secretary, added that the EU had to grasp “that the UK is prepared to trade some economic loss in exchange for independence, and it simply will not be an associated state, like Turkey or the Mediterranean countries”.
“Once the EU understands this, then landing zones become possible for state aids, fisheries and even for the Northern Ireland Protocol, three of the most intractable areas at present,” he said.
The news came as Nigel Farage, the Brexit Party leader who last week quit his LBC radio show after he likened Black Lives Matter protesters to the Taliban, told The Telegraph that he was maintaining a “watching brief” on the talks.
Mr Farage said he feared that last week’s decision by the UK only to offer light-touch checks on goods coming into the UK from the Continent from January was “the first slip” in a softening of Brexit. He said: “If they slip on Brexit then there will be a new insurgent political party in British politics.”