This past week a group defining themselves as Secular Democrats of America submitted a 28-page letter to Kamala Harris and Joe Biden calling on them to expunge religion from all sectors of American public life and to “re-educate” Christian Americans that they should keep their “religious dogma” to themselves.
In their document, titled “Restoring Constitutional Secularism and Patriotic Pluralism in the White House,” congressional Democrats Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Jared Huffman of California and Jerry McNerney of California bemoan life under the Trump administration:
“The constant entanglement of religion and government … sweeps far beyond hot-button ‘culture war’ issues … It permeates every aspect of government policy — health care, public and private education, foreign policy, tax policy, environmental policy, military policy, and more …”
They continue:
“[Government] decisions should be guided by science and evidence … We believe that now is the right time to make a case for reviving a Jeffersonian approach to governance that favors reason … and to disentangle government policy from the influence of … religious interests that have become dangerously entrenched at all levels of government.”
The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier tweeted Sunday that talks with Britain over a post-Brexit trade deal reached a “crucial moment”, stressing the negotiations were in full swing.
“The EU remains committed to a fair, reciprocal and balanced agreement. We respect the sovereignty of the UK. And we expect the same,” he stressed, arguing both parties “must have the right to set their own laws and control their own waters”.
In this crucial moment for the ???? negotiations, we continue to work hard with @DavidGHFrost and his team.
The EU remains committed to a fair, reciprocal & balanced agreement. We respect the sovereignty of the UK. And we expect the same. (1/2)
— Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) December 20, 2020
The head of the European Commission’s Task Force for Brexit stressed the importance of the UK and the bloc being equally able to act “when our interests are at stake”.
The EU and the UK are “widely expected” to wrap up Brexit trade deal talks “one way or another” before Christmas, but a no-deal scenario is still on the table, a number of UK government sources told the Daily Mail.
Downing Street is ostensibly disappointed by Michel Barnier’s ultimatum with regard to the fisheries issue – something that was described as something that would potentially enable Brussels to slap “lightning tariffs” on London should it put curbs on the bloc’s access to UK fishing waters.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier (L), wearing a protective face covering to combat the spread of the coronavirus, walks to a conference centre in central London on December 2, 2020 as talks continue on a trade deal between the EU and the UK.
Late last week, Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed to extend negotiations on the UK-EU trade deal beyond the initial self-imposed 13 December deadline, which couldn’t be met: additional time had to be earmarked not only for the sides to discuss the arrangements, but for the parliaments of the 27 EU countries and the UK to ratify them.
As the talks proceeded, the British prime minister stressed that London has “done a lot to try and help” resolve the Brexit limbo and it is the EU that should “see sense and come to the table with something themselves”. EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, for his part, warned that time is almost up for the bloc and the UK to strike an accord, adding that the possibility of a Brexit deal “is here”.
“It’s the moment of truth. We have very little time remaining, just a few hours to work through these negotiations in a useful fashion if we want this agreement to enter into force on the first of January. There is a chance of getting an agreement but the path to such an agreement is very narrow”, Barnier told the European Parliament.
Trade talks have been stuck for months over wide divergences over fishing quotas, the so-called level playing field — a set of commonly accepted rules designed to prevent businesses in one country from acting unfairly with regard to their rivals in others — as well as governance issues.
If no trade deal is inked before 1 January, the World Trade Organisation’s rules will take effect starting in 2021, including customs tariffs and full border checks for UK goods travelling across the English Channel.
Michel Barnier has warned that Britain must be prepared to respect the EU’s sovereignty if talks on a post-Brexit trade deal are to succeed.
Brussels chief negotiator said the EU remained committed to achieving “a fair, reciprocal and balanced agreement” but said both sides needed to be able to act when their interests were at stake.
His comments came after a UK Government source warned that the negotiations would fail unless there was a “substantial shift” in the EU’s position in the remaining days of the talks.
In this crucial moment for the ???? negotiations, we continue to work hard with @DavidGHFrost and his team.
The EU remains committed to a fair, reciprocal & balanced agreement. We respect the sovereignty of the UK. And we expect the same. (1/2)
The British side has accused the EU of making “unreasonable demands” and of failing to respect UK sovereignty over fishing rights and fair competition rules.
In a statement posted on Twitter, Mr Barnier said the talks with the UK’s chief negotiator Lord Frost were at a “crucial moment”.
“The EU remains committed to a fair, reciprocal and balanced agreement. We respect the sovereignty of the UK. And we expect the same,” he said.
“Both the EU and the UK must have the right to set their own laws and control their own waters. And we should both be able to act when our interests are at stake.”
Talks have been continuing in Brussels over the weekend but UK sources said it was looking increasingly likely the Brexit transition period will end on December 31 without an agreement.
Both ??&?? must have the right to set their own laws & control their own waters. And we should both be able to act when our interests are at stake. (2/2)
A Government source said: “Unfortunately, the EU are still struggling to get the flexibility needed from member states and are continuing to make demands that are incompatible with our independence.
“We cannot accept a deal that doesn’t leave us in control of our own laws or waters.
“We’re continuing to try every possible path to an agreement but without a substantial shift from the Commission we will be leaving on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms on December 31.”
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he believed a deal was still possible but said it would require movement on the EU side.
“We want these talks to reach a positive conclusion. I think everybody wants a deal. Unfortunately, the EU have put in some unreasonable demands,” he told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme.
“I’m sure that a deal can be done but obviously it needs movement on the EU side.”
The European Parliament has said the talks need to be concluded by Sunday evening if it is to ratify any deal before the transition ends.
However, EU leaders could provisionally sign off on any agreement – leaving ratification to 2021 – and the British side expects the talks to continue a few days longer in the week leading up to Christmas.
If there is no deal by December 31, the UK will leave the single market and customs union and begin trading with the EU on WTO terms – with the imposition of tariffs potentially leading to higher prices in the shops.
Britain has insisted that the European Union should shift position to open the way for a breakthrough in post-Brexit trade talks, with health minister Matt Hancock saying the bloc should drop its “unreasonable demands”.
With less than two weeks before Britain leaves the EU’s orbit, both sides are calling on the other to move to secure a deal and safeguard almost a trillion dollars worth of trade from tariffs and quotas.
Talks to reach a trade deal have been largely hamstrung over two issues – the EU’s fishing rights in British waters and creating a so-called level playing field providing fair competition rules.
Hancock again referred to what Britain has described as new demands introduced by the EU earlier this month, saying they were “unreasonable” and should be dropped.
“We want these talks to reach a positive conclusion, of course I want a deal, everybody wants a deal,” Hancock told Sky News.
“Unfortunately, the EU have put in some unreasonable demands … I am sure a deal can be done but obviously it needs movement on the EU side.”
Britain left the EU on January 31 but has been in a transition period since then. That expires at the end of the year.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has long said he cannot accept any deal that does not respect the country’s sovereignty, a goal that was at the heart of his election last year.
But the EU is equally determined to protect its lucrative single market and wants to prevent London securing what it considers to be the best of both worlds – preferential market access with the advantage of setting its own rules.
There is little time left.
On Saturday, the European Parliament repeated its call for a deal to be reached no later than the end of this weekend, to give it time to properly ratify the agreement.
The EU wants to safeguard the parliament’s right to exercise democratic oversight, but if an agreement arrived later than this weekend the member states could still endorse it on their own to allow for “provisional application”.
The European Union’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said on Sunday that talks were at a “crucial” point and that the negotiations continued.
“In this crucial moment for the negotiations, we continue to work hard with (UK negotiator) David Frost and his team,” Barnier said on Twitter.
“The EU remains committed to a fair, reciprocal and balanced agreement. We respect the sovereignty of the UK. And we expect the same.
“Both the EU and the UK must have the right to set their own laws and control their own waters. And we should both be able to act when our interests are at stake.”
Michel Barnier today warned the UK it must respect the EU’s sovereignty in post-Brexit trade talks as Matt Hancock said the bloc will have to withdraw its ‘unreasonable demands’ for a deal to be agreed.
Mr Barnier tweeted this afternoon that negotiations are at a ‘crucial moment’ and insisted the EU ‘remains committed to a fair, reciprocal and balanced agreement’.
However, he warned: ‘We respect the sovereignty of the UK. And we expect the same.’
The EU’s chief negotiator said both the EU and the UK ‘must have the right to set their own laws and control their own waters’ under the terms of any accord as he stressed ‘we should both be able to act when our interests are at stake’.
His comments came after Mr Hancock fired a broadside at Brussels as he said the EU will have to ‘make the move’ if a deal is to be agreed.
The Health Secretary claimed Brussels’ proposals on the remaining crunch issues of the ‘level playing field’ and fishing ‘do not respect the result of the referendum’ in 2016 and must be scrapped.
However, he insisted he is ‘sure that a deal can be done’ despite time running out before the end of the ‘standstill’ transition period on December 31.
Earlier, Emmanuel Macron was warned Britain will not cave in over fishing as rising optimism of a deal being in sight began to wane.
Mr Macron has dug in over his demands relating to future access to UK waters for French fishermen amid suggestions he believes Britain will come crawling back to the negotiating table in the New Year after the chaos of a no deal split.
But the UK has warned the French President that he will be ‘making a miscalculation of historic proportions’ if he believes Britain will back down.
Michel Barnier today said Brexit trade talks are at a ‘crucial moment’ and ‘we should both be able to act when out interests are at stake’
Emmanuel Macron has been warned the UK will not cave into his demands on post-Brexit fishing rights
There is now less than two weeks before the end of the transition period and a failure to strike and ratify a deal in the coming days will see the two sides forced to trade on basic World Trade Organisation terms from January 1, with tariffs imposed on goods.
European Parliament chiefs had set a deadline of today for an accord to be in place, having warned that if it comes later than that they will not have enough time to properly scrutinise it.
But there remains little sign of a breakthrough being imminent, with Britain and the bloc still unable to agree on the so-called ‘level playing field’ on rules and on fishing rights, with the latter viewed as the biggest stumbling block.
In a statement issued on Twitter this afternoon, Mr Barnier said: ‘The EU remains committed to a fair, reciprocal and balanced agreement. We respect the sovereignty of the UK. And we expect the same.
‘Both the EU and the UK must have the right to set their own laws and control their own waters. And we should both be able to act when our interests are at stake.’
Mr Hancock had earlier told Sky News that the EU will have to rethink its negotiating position if there is to be a deal.
He said: ‘The talks are continuing. I understand that the EU have put in a deadline of having them concluded by Christmas.
‘We want these talks to reach a positive conclusion. Of course I want a deal, I think everybody wants a deal. Unfortunately the EU have put in some unreasonable demands.
‘Obviously I have been mostly concentrating on the pandemic but I have been looking at the detail of some of the requests from the EU. They are unreasonable, they do no respect the result of the referendum.’
Asked specifically which demands the UK considers to be ‘unreasonable’, the Health Secretary said: ‘Well, over the sovereignty of our rules around the so-called level playing field, actually this is rules around how government introduces subsidies, and then over fishing.
‘I am sure that a deal can be done but obviously it needs movement on the EU side. I am an incredibly pragmatic politician and I want to see a deal.
‘But I also think that the EU demands are unreasonable and they are not demands that can be accepted so we do need to see that movement from the EU side and I very much hope that they make the steps that are necessary so we can conclude a deal and then we can all look forward and we have got a huge amount to get through as a continent because there are very significant problems with this virus on the continent as well.’
He added: ‘They need to make the move, they need to remove some of the unreasonable requests, then we can all move forward and concentrate on dealing with the things that are right in front of us and need urgent action.’
Mr Hancock said he believed the two sides should ‘keep talking’ but insisted the UK is ‘ready’ for a no deal split on December 31.
There is growing anger at the position taken by Mr Macron who is adamant European trawlers must retain a high level of access to British waters while the UK insists its own boats must have priority.
The French President is said to be willing to accept a no deal Brexit in the short term rather than back down on the issue because he believes the UK will come back to the negotiating table in the Spring.
But a UK source told the Sunday Times: ‘If he, Macron, thinks that, he’s making a miscalculation of historic proportions.
‘We cannot accept a deal that doesn’t leave us in charge of our own waters.’
A Cabinet minister told the same newspaper: ‘There’s no white smoke. I think we’ll still be talking about this on December 31.’
However, in a sign that a deal could still be done in the coming days another source told the Sunday Telegraph that almost all of the deal was now done and ‘it feels like we are less than two turbots apart’.
MEPs said they needed to see the terms of any agreement by this evening if they are going to be able to ratify it before the end of the Brexit transition period on December 31.
But France’s European affairs minister, Clement Beaune, suggested on Saturday that Sunday was unlikely to prove to be a hard deadline.
‘It would be normal not to say ‘Well it’s Sunday evening so let’s wrap it and sacrifice everything’,’ he was quoted as saying by the Guardian website.
‘It may be hard and sometimes tough to understand, but it’s necessary to take the time and, at any rate, not to sacrifice our interests under the pressure of a calendar.’
Meanwhile in the UK, MPs are on standby to return to Westminster from their Christmas break if an agreement can be struck in the final days of the year.
Both sides have acknowledged that significant differences still have to be overcome if there is to be a breakthrough.
While the fishing industry accounts for only a tiny proportion of the EU and UK economies it carries huge political resonance on both sides of the Channel.
While the UK says that it is entitled as an independent sovereign nation to take control of its waters, countries like France are determined to defend their fishermen who would lose their livelihoods if they could no longer fish in British waters.
Late Bollywood music director Wajid Khan’s wife, Kamalrukh has come up again with a new revelation and said that Wajid threatened to divorce her in the year 2014 as she was not ready to convert her religion, and the duo was living separately since then. In her latest interview, Kamalrukh opened up about her relationship with the late Wajid Khan. She praised the deceased music director but said he wasn’t ‘strong-minded’ and could be easily ‘influenced’. She further revealed that ‘the last few days of his life were very sad’ as he was suffering from COVID-19 and was not allowed to meet his family. Notably, Kamalrukh recently accused his family of pressuring her to convert.
Deep into a crucial weekend of negotiations, a breakthrough on fishing rights remained elusive for European Union and Britain
By RAF CASERT Associated Press
December 20, 2020, 1:07 PM
• 3 min read
BRUSSELS — Deep into a crucial weekend of negotiations, a breakthrough on fishing rights remained elusive for the European Union and Britain, leaving both without a trade agreement that would dull the edge of a chaotic, costly economic break on New Year’s Day.
With hundreds of thousands of jobs at stake throughout the economy, the tiny sector of fisheries continued to drive a wedge between the 27-nation bloc and the U.K., highlighting the animosity that drove them to a Brexit divorce over the past four years. Britain left the bloc in January but a 11-month economic transition period ends on Dec. 31.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office said Sunday that the EU is “continuing to make demands that are incompatible with our independence. We cannot accept a deal that doesn’t leave us in control of our own laws or waters.”
The almost mythical sense of Britain’s rights to rule its waves was an essential part of what drove Brexiteers to victory in the 2016 referendum. Johnson is seeking to make sure that as much as possible of the shared British waters are now returned to U.K. vessels only.
The EU has always maintained that those waters have been shared for decades, if not centuries, and insists if too many fishing rights are taken away, it will punish Britain by imposing hefty import fees to the mainland market, which is essential to the U.K. seafood industry.
The stalemate has left the overall talks inconclusive with businesses on both sides clamoring for a deal that would save tens of billions in costs. Johnson, though, could not be budged.
“We need to get any deal right and based on terms which respect what the British people voted for,” his office said.
The EU parliament needs to approve any deal before the end of the year and had set a Sunday night deadline so it could have a cursory vetting of the deal and approve it before New Year’s Day. Negotiators, however, seemed little impressed by yet another deadline when so many had already been missed during the four-year departure process.
One official from an EU coastal nation said the EU was refusing to yield more than a quarter of the fishing quotas the bloc stands to lose now that Britain is regaining full control of its waters due to Brexit. Britain is also steadfast that a 3-year transition period would be long enough for EU fishermen to adapt to the new rules, while the EU wants at least six years.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the talks were still ongoing.
A failure to reach a post-Brexit deal would lead to more chaos on Britain’s borders with the EU at the start of 2021, when new tariffs would add to other impediments to trade enacted by both sides. The talks have bogged down on two main issues over the past days — the EU’s access to U.K. fishing waters and assurances of fair competition between businesses.
A trade deal would ensure there are no tariffs and quotas on trade in goods between the two sides, but there would still be technical costs, partly associated with customs checks and non-tariff barriers on services.
While both sides would suffer economically from a failure to secure a trade deal, most economists think the British economy would take a greater hit, at least in the near-term, as it is relatively more reliant on trade with the EU than vice versa.
———
Jill Lawless contributed from London.
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Follow all AP stories about Brexit and British politics at https://apnews.com/hub/brexit
Michel Barnier has been told by the European fishing industry that his latest offer to the UK amounts to selling coastal communities “down the river” as negotiators continue to haggle in Brussels over a post-Brexit trade and security deal.
The EU and UK negotiating teams remain at loggerheads on the future rights of EU fishing fleets in British seas, with Downing Street warning there will not be a deal without a significant shift from Barnier in the coming hours.
The annual turnover from fish for UK vessels in British waters is about €850m (£770m) compared with €650m by EU member states. The prime minister has rejected the latest EU offer of handing over 25% of its catch by value – €162.5m a year – to UK vessels.
The UK insists that the EU needs to get closer to its demand for 60% of the current catch being repatriated, worth about €390m a year.
Downing Street also wants to restrict a phase-in period for the new arrangements to three years rather than the six or seven most recently proposed by Brussels.
But in a warning shot across Barnier’s bows, Gerard van Balsfoort, the chairman of the European Fisheries Alliance, representing the industry in coastal states such as France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain, said the terms already offered would involve “unprecedented” and unacceptable cuts.
He said: “The shape of a deal, as currently stands, would give a huge blow to the European seafood sector which is made up more than 18,000 fishermen and 3,500 vessels with an annual turnover of €20.7bn.
“Our industry is literally and metaphorically on the brink and in spite of repeated promises made, we are in the throes of being sold down the river with the offer made to the United Kingdom by the European commission. The more so when the fisheries negotiations with the UK are intended to start all over again after only six or seven years.”
Should the nine months of talks fail to produce an agreement on a trade and security deal, the UK’s waters would be entirely shut to EU vessels, unless some contingency arrangements could be negotiated.
But Van Balsfoort said his members would prefer a no-deal outcome than the terms so far proposed by Barnier. There are 11 days to go before the UK leaves the transition period, with or without a deal.
Van Balsfoort said: “The one thing we wanted to avoid was a ‘no-deal’ situation in the interests of all our fishermen but the deal which is now being proposed is every bit as bad. We are looking at vicious and unprecedented cuts on a wide range of stocks including our pelagic, shellfish and whitefish sectors.
“This is galling and if the European commission doesn’t stand up for its fishermen and honour its written agreement made during the arduous Brexit negotiations, it could spell the death knell for large parts of an industry which has contributed so much to coastal communities across nine EU states. Our fishermen must be protected as they risk life and limb to provide fresh food in the most unforgiving environment on earth.”
The European parliament has set midnight on Sunday, central European time, as the deadline for agreement. MEPs have said they will not hold a vote of consent this year if a deal is not in place.
A deal could still be “provisionally applied” by the 27 EU member states, with parliament holding a vote in January, although the commission is loth to take that route.
The provisional application process could also take up to a week, due to the need for translation and scrutiny of the text in the EU capitals, leaving just a few days more of talking time before a no-deal outcome, for at least a short period in the event of a very late agreement, becomes unavoidable.
Clément Beaune, France’s European affairs minister, said a deal remained doable in the coming few days. “We have given ourselves a few more days because we think that an agreement is still possible,” he said. “It’s hard, not sure, but worth a try. More than an agreement, we want a good agreement, in particular preserving fishing and fair conditions of competition. The negotiations should be concluded in the next few days. We know where our red lines are and what interests we don’t want to sacrifice.”
A UK government source said: “We need to get any deal right and based on terms which respect what the British people voted for. Unfortunately, the EU are still struggling to get the flexibility needed from member states and are continuing to make demands that are incompatible with our independence.
“We cannot accept a deal that doesn’t leave us in control of our own laws or waters. We’re continuing to try every possible path to an agreement, but without a substantial shift from the commission we will be leaving on WTO terms on December 31.”
SHIMLA: With Himachal Pradesh home department fixing December 18 as the date to implement provisions of the Himachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2019 (13 of 2019), any forced religious conversion will be a cognizable and non-bailable offence in the state. The Bill was tabled and passed in the state assembly last August. It later received the governor’s nod but the date of implementation was not fixed. “In exercise of powers conferred by sub-section (2) Section 1 of Himachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2019 (13 of 2019), the Governor Himachal Pradesh, is pleased to appoint the 18th day of December, 2020 the date from which the provisions of the aforesaid Act shall come into force,” said a notification issued by the principal secretary (home) on Friday. According to Section 3 of new Act, no person will convert or attempt to convert, either directly or otherwise, any other person from one religion to another by use of misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, inducement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage; nor shall any person abet or conspire such conversion. The violators will be punished with imprisonment for a term of not less than one year and up to five years. The violator will also be liable to pay fine. The Himachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act, 2006 had the provision of punishment of maximum two years of imprisonment or fine which may extend to Rs 25,000 or with both. In case the offence was committed in respect of a minor, a woman or a person belonging to schedule castes or schedule tribes, the punishment of imprisonment may extend to three years and fine may extend to Rs 50,000. Now, violating provisions in respect of a minor, woman or person belonging to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe will invite imprisonment of not less than two years, which may be extended to seven years and the violator will also be liable to pay fine. According to the law, any marriage conducted with the sole purpose of conversion by a person of one religion with a person of another religion either by converting himself before or after marriage or by converting the other person before or after the marriage can be declared null and void by the family court on a petition presented by either party thereto. One who desires to be converted to another religion will have to give a declaration at least one month in advance on the proforma as may be prescribed, to the district magistrate or executive magistrate, of his intention to convert his religion on his own volition or free consent and without any force, coercion, undue influence, inducement or fraudulent means. In case a person wants to re-convert to his parent religion, no notice will be required. Even the religious priest who performs purification sanskar or conversion ceremony for converting any person of one religion to another religion will have to give one month’s advance notice of such sanskar or conversion to the district magistrate or executive magistrate on the prescribed proforma. Under the new Act, burden of proof as to whether religious conversion was not effected through misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, inducement or by any fraudulent means or by marriage lies on the person so converted and where such conversion has been facilitated by any person, on such other person. To put a check on forcible conversion and conversion taking place by way of misrepresentation and inducement etc, Himachal Pradesh government, on August 29 last year, tabled the Himachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Bill 2019 to re-enact the law to provide freedom of religion by prohibition of conversion. Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, in the statement of objects and reasons of the Bill, said that it has been observed that there is a rise in conversions by fraudulent means and unless checked well in time, this practice may erode the confidence and mutual trust between different ethnic and religious groups in the state. It was stated that if forcible conversions were not prohibited, there would be public disorder in the state. Thus, in order to check forcible conversions of religion in the state and to preserve the peaceful atmosphere thereof, it was decided to bring an effective legislation in place of the Himachal Pradesh Freedom of Religion Act 2006.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. (PIC: Leon Neal)
Post-Brexit talks dragged on into Sunday, as they were deadlocked on fishing rights.
Sources from both sides said that unless the other backed down on access to UK waters, Britain would leave the single market at midnight on December 31.
EU diplomat told AFP that Brussels had made Britain its last offer on fishing and it was down now to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to decide whether he wants a deal.
British and EU negotiators had dug in their heels and were each demanding more concessions from the other as post-Brexit trade talks dragged on into Sunday, deadlocked on fishing rights.
Sources from both sides said that unless the other backed down on access to UK waters, Britain would leave the single market at midnight on December 31 without a follow-on deal on cross-Channel commerce.
“We’re continuing to try every possible path to an agreement, but without a substantial shift from the (European) Commission we will be leaving on WTO terms on 31 December,” a British government source said.
But an EU diplomat told AFP that Brussels had made Britain its last offer on fishing and it was down now to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to decide whether he wants a deal.
“If Britain doesn’t accept the latest EU offer it will be a ‘no deal’ over fish,” he warned. A European official said: “It’s very blocked.”
The tough talk came as both sides are engaged in intense – and tense – negotiations to secure a pact before the end of the month. No deal would risk chaos at EU and UK borders, where a pre-deadline rush has already caused long tailbacks of lorries.
Observers, however, noted that the fishing issue was about finding middle ground between offer and counteroffer in an economically small sector, while the much bigger other main issue, on guaranteeing fair trade competition rules is closer to settlement.
“It’s all down to numbers now,” the European diplomat said.
The EU’s pointman in the negotiations, Michel Barnier, has proposed EU fishermen giving up nearly a quarter of the value of the fish they currently catch in UK waters. Britain is understood to be holding out for getting back much more than half.
The UK has suggested this compromise last for three years before it is renegotiated, whereas Europe is holding out for double that.
“We cannot accept a deal that doesn’t leave us in control of our own laws or waters,” the UK government source said, arguing that the EU was “continuing to make demands that are incompatible with our independence”.
Fishermen ‘sold down the river’
EU fishermen fear losing any access to the rich UK fishing waters will threaten their livelihoods.
“We are in the throes of being sold down the river,” the European Fisheries Alliance said in a statement, urging Barnier to stick to protecting them.
“The shape of a deal, as currently stands would give a huge blow to the European seafood sector which is made up of more than 18 000 fishermen and 3 500 vessels with an annual turnover of 20.7 billion euros.”
Time is very short to reach an accord.
The European Parliament has highlighted a deadline of midnight (23:00 GMT) on Sunday to receive a deal for review if MEPs are to ratify it before the end of the year.
Their UK parliamentary counterparts are in recess, but can be recalled within 48 hours to do likewise.
But EU capitals are not binding themselves to the European Parliament’s deadline.
France’s European affairs minister, Clement Beaune, said talks will not be called to a halt if they drag out past Sunday night.
“We won’t do that because what is at risk is whole sectors like fishing, like sustainable competition conditions for our businesses,” he said.
‘Concerns’ Britain not ready
The urgency of reaching a deal is seen in long lines of trucks at the freight rail link through the Channel tunnel as British companies frantically stockpile.
A group of UK MPs warned on Saturday that Britain has not installed the complex IT systems and port infrastructure needed to ensure trade with the EU runs smoothly.
Some disruption is inevitable, deal or no deal, with British and European firms needing to fill out import-export, health and tax forms to send and receive goods to each other.
A deal would avoid tariffs but there would still be traffic snarls as checks on truck loads and drivers’ papers are carried out.
Even truck drivers’ lunches will come under border scrutiny: the British government warned packed ham and cheese sandwiches are banned from entry into Europe under meat and dairy restrictions that apply to non-EU arrivals.
