Row breaks out between Britain and EU over stalled Brexit talks

Blame-game over lack of meetings

A row has broken out behind the scenes of Brexit talks as UK and EU negotiators point fingers over the lack of meetings between Dominic Raab and Michel Barnier.

Officials have not met for a week despite a looming deadline and a pledge to intensify discussions made during the last round of meetings.

“We have suggested over five hours of talks this Friday and have made other suggestions for weekly meetings,” one EU official told The Independent, adding that they were awaiting reply from the UK.

UK diplomats had however complained that Mr Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, was not available for meetings 24/7 as the European Commission claims, in part because of his trips abroad to member states led to diary clashes.

The chief negotiator is currently in Berlin meeting with German ministers, where he is updating them on the latest developments and getting feedback on the progress of talks.

Brussels says Mr Barnier’s trips abroad to member states are an important part of his job to get feedback from national government – which EU officials say is ultimately in the UK’s interests for smooth negotiations.

The EU source added that the lack of UK proposals on Northern Ireland was the main roadblock to progress in any case, and that meetings alone would not solve this.

Most meetings during Brexit talks have been conducted at either the technical or coordinator level – without the two team leaders Mr Barnier and Mr Raab.

But The Guardian reports that UK officials are “tearing their hair out” over the lack of meetings between the chiefs. Mr Raab, the Brexit secretary, who is himself today appearing before a House of Lords committee in London, was reportedly initially only offered a three hour meeting with Mr Barnier later this week due to apparent diary clashes.

At the last meeting a week ago Mr Raab and Mr Barnier pledged to hold “continuous” discussions as talks entered their “final stage”. These non-stop meetings do not yet appear to have materialised, however.

Officials are struggling to make any progress because of deadlock at the political level, with both the British Government and European member states outright rejecting each others’ proposals for the Northern Ireland border – the crucial sticking point in discussions.

The Northern Ireland border issue must be solved before a withdrawal agreement can be signed, and the Irish government has said a withdrawal agreement without a border backstop would “be of no use” – effectively threatening a no-deal. The European Parliament, which also has its own veto, has made a similar threat.

Both Britain and the EU say they want to prevent a hard border in Ireland; the EU has proposed Northern Ireland staying in the EU customs territory to accomplish this. The UK has rejected this proposal on the basis that it would be a breach of British sovereignty, but the EU has argued that it would not, and suggested the UK “de-dramatise” its response to the plan – effectively telling Britain to chill out.

The EU says the UK’s own proposal would not prevent a hard border, and UK officials have suggested they have no plans to offer any further solutions.

Apart from the Ireland issue, UK and EU also want to come to a separate political declaration on what their future trade relationship will look like. Though the main talks for finalising this relationship would be held after the UK leaves, the British government says it needs detail on the future relationship to pass the plan through Parliament.

Theresa May’s Chequers plan, the UK’s blueprint for the future relationship, has effectively been rejected by the commission. The EU raised fundamental issues with Britain’s unique proposals for customs, as well as unhindered special UK access to the single market for goods.

Michel Barnier has repeatedly said that in the EU’s view the only way to maintain frictionless trade after Brexit would be for Britain to join a customs union with the EU and also follow the rules of the single market, including freedom of movement and the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. Theresa May has ruled out all these policies and at home appears to have little room for manoeuvre, with eurosceptics in her party already threatening to reject Chequers.

Both parties say they want a deal by October to give time for it to be ratified with the UK is set to leave the EU on the 29 March 2019 under the terms of Article 50 – with or without a deal.