UK to EU: we won't accept supervision in post-Brexit deal

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UK to EU: we won't accept supervision in post-Brexit deal

2020-02-18 03:28 Last Updated At：03:30

Britain's chief negotiator on Monday set out a clashing course in trade talks with the European Union, saying the 27-nation bloc has totally missed the point of Brexit if it thinks it will retain some supervision over U.K. actions.

The EU has said it wants the best possible trade relationship with the U.K. but only if there is a level playing field for businesses on anything from state subsidies to environmental standards, and is insisting on clear checks to enforce it.

U.K. negotiator David Frost said, according to extracts from the released speech, that “to think that we might accept EU supervision on so-called level playing field issues simply fails to see the point of what we are doing."

In a major speech at the ULB Brussels university, he said that rejecting any EU meddling on rules and regulations “is the point of the whole project" of leaving the bloc after 47 years.

And he further stressed that there was no way that Britain would seek a longer transition period than 11 months to clinch a deal, a timespan considered next to impossible for a trade agreement between such commercial juggernauts.

On Jan. 1, 2021, he said, “we recover our political and economic independence in full – why would we want to postpone it?"

With such comments, Frost gave indications that Britain might be willing to walk away without an agreement rather than compromise on key issues.

The European Union also made it clear that rough times lay ahead when French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said over the weekend that "we'll be seriously at each other's throats" during the negotiations.

The EU raised the ire of the U.K. by making a clear link between close commercial relations and the demand to adhere to EU rules. Frost made it clear that setting its own rules clearly trumps a cozy deal with the EU.

“It is central to our vision that we must have the ability to set laws that suit us – to claim the right that every other non-EU country in the world has," Frost said.

The EU has insisted that it has no problems with that, but that the further removed those laws and rules are, the less advantageous the trade deal. EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier was equally emphatic that the EU's 27 remaining nations wouldn't agree to any British trade deal just to avoid a costly, chaotic “no-deal” at the start of 2021.

The negotiations are to start at the beginning of next month.

Follow AP’s full coverage of Brexit and British politics at: https://www.apnews.com/Brexit

EU, Britain and Spain say significant progress made in talks on post-Brexit status of Gibraltar

2024-04-12 23:26 Last Updated At：23:31

MADRID (AP) — British and Spanish foreign ministers said a new round of talks held Friday over the status of the disputed territory of Gibraltar following Britain’s exit from the European Union were productive and significant progress was made.

The meeting was between Spain's José Manuel Albares, Britain’s David Cameron and European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic in Brussels. Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo also attended. It was the first time representatives from the four areas had come together for talks on the issue.

In a statement after the meeting, the parties said "discussions took place in a constructive atmosphere, with significant progress achieved.

“General political lines have been agreed (on), including on airport, goods and mobility. Negotiations will continue over the coming weeks to conclude the EU-UK Agreement,” it added.

All sides are eager to clinch a deal before European elections in June.

Britain left the European Union in 2020 with the relationship between Gibraltar and the bloc unresolved. Talks on a deal to ensure people and goods can keep flowing over the Gibraltar-Spain border have made halting progress in the 19 rounds of negotiations so far, but both Spanish and U.K. officials have recently expressed optimism about a deal.

In Britain’s 2016 Brexit referendum, 96% of voters in Gibraltar supported remaining in the EU. The tiny territory on Spain's southern tip depends greatly on access to the EU market for its 34,000 inhabitants.

Gibraltar was ceded to Britain in 1713, but Spain has maintained its sovereignty claim ever since. Relations concerning the Rock, as it is popularly referred to in English, have had their ups and downs over the centuries.

A major sticking point has been who controls Gibraltar’s airport, which under the proposed free-movement deal would be an external border of the EU. The U.K. and Gibraltar have resisted Spain’s insistence that Spanish border officials be based at the airport, which is also home to a Royal Air Force base.

The British Foreign Office said Thursday that while it did not expect a final agreement Friday, "getting senior political figures from the UK, European Commission, Spain and Gibraltar in one room is significant.”

Associated Press writer Jill Lawless reported from London.