Germany axes plan to speak about Brexit at high-level EU summit
Germany has scrapped plans to discuss post-Brexit trade deal negotiations at an upcoming EU ambassadors summit as there has not been enough progress.
Brexit was due to be a major point of discussion at the 2 September summit, however EU officials are reportedly increasingly pessimistic that the UK will leave on a no-deal basis on 31 December.
The Guardian reports that Germany, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, has decided to remove Brexit from the agenda of next week’s summit as a result.
One diplomat told The Guardian: “Since there hasn’t been any tangible progress in EU-UK negotiations, the Brexit item was taken off the agenda.”
Another added: “People underestimate how bleak the mood is in the EU negotiation team.
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“We have had the whole summer completely wasted, a cabinet that doesn’t understand how the negotiations work, a prime minister who, I think, doesn’t understand how the negotiations work – because he is under the wrong impression that he can pull off negotiating at the 11th hour.”
Talks between the UK and EU are at a standstill, with little progress made in recent months on the most contentious areas, such as EU fishing access to the UK and business competition regulations known as the level playing field.
Both sides have said a deal needs to be struck by October so there is enough time to ratify it in the European Parliament before the UK leaves the bloc’s customs union and single market on 31 December.
The latest formal round of negotiations wrapped up last Friday, with UK chief negotiator David Frost saying a deal would “not be easy to achieve”.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said Boris Johnson was “wasting valuable time” in negotiations.