EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Friday told the bloc’s leaders that there were “low expectations” a post-Brexit trade deal could be struck with Britain, EU sources said.

An EU official said leaders heard that the “probability of a no deal is higher than of a deal” at a brief discussion of Brexit at a marathon Brussels summit, as time ticks down to a Sunday deadline to make a call on prolonging talks or giving up. 

The pessimistic tone came after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned Thursday there was a “strong possibility” of no deal, and instructed his government to prepare for Britain to crash out of the European Union’s single market at the end of this year. 

Negotiators from the EU and Britain are carrying on talks in Brussels Friday to see if they can fathom a route to an accord by the weekend cut-off point set by von der Leyen and Johnson at a combative dinner meeting this week. 

An EU official said it would become clear soon if there was any point to prolonging the discussions, but refused to rule out a last-minute “turnaround” in the talks to secure a deal despite the gathering gloom. 

The EU on Thursday published its own contingency plans to keep basic air and road travel running and fishing rights open in the event of no deal, in a move seen as a warning shot to London. 

Britain left the EU on January 31 after five decades of integration but a standstill transition period, under which it remains bound by the bloc’s rules pending any new deal, ends on the night of December 31.

Without a post-Brexit deal, Britain’s trade with its biggest market would in future operate on pared-down World Trade Organization rules, with tariffs and quotas.

Talks are mainly blocked over the issue of fair competition, with Britain refusing to accept a mechanism that would allow the EU to respond swiftly if UK and EU business rules diverge over time and put European firms at a disadvantage.

Fishing is another sore issue, with Europe eager to keep as much access as possible to the UK’s waters.

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Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), Africa’s leading philanthropy committed to empowering young African entrepreneurs, has announced a partnership with the European Union to identify, train, mentor and fund 2,500 young African women entrepreneurs in 2021.

The partnership will disburse €20 million in financial and technical support for women-owned businesses, across all 54 African countries, in addition to providing increased access to market linkages, supply chains and venture capital investments.

The joint initiative will significantly strengthen and deepen the EU-Africa partnership, builds on the platform and experience of the US$100m TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, and forms part of the EU External Investment Plan to support women economic empowerment within the EU Gender Action Plan (GAP III).

Commenting on the landmark partnership, Tony Elumelu, Founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation said “We are delighted to partner with the European Union, sharing our unique ability to identify, train, mentor and fund young entrepreneurs across Africa.

“This joint effort will prioritise and provide economic opportunities for African women, whom for too long have endured systemic obstacles to starting, growing and sustaining their businesses.  Our partnership will alleviate the funding, knowledge and market constraints threatening the livelihoods of women entrepreneurs on the continent, to create more income, jobs, growth and scale for women-owned businesses.”

The EU Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, said “This partnership with the Tony Elumelu Foundation will help women participants in economic development, realise their full potential and accelerate economic inclusion.

“Empowering women entrepreneurs is a key driver for sustainable jobs and growth, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and in line with the objectives of our African Strategy.  Women and girls represent half of the world’s population and they deserve equal opportunities.”

The Tony Elumelu Foundation, which marks ten years of impact this year, is empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, catalysing economic growth, driving poverty eradication and ensuring job creation across all 54 African countries.

The Foundation has trained, mentored and funded nearly 10,000 young African entrepreneurs from 54 African countries, and continues to provide capacity-building support, advisory and market linkages to over 1 million Africans through its digital networking platform, TEFConnect.

TEF’s female success stories include Joyce Awojoodu, from Nigeria, who launched a luxury botanically based product line and spa clinic in Lagos, in 2015.  The brand ORÍKÌ, caters to both men and women, and strictly uses raw materials and natural ingredients from Africa.  Awojoodu’s favourite element of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme was the mentorship, which she described as “phenomenal”’ and “invaluable” for ORÍKÌ.

In her own words, “each TEF Entrepreneur was assigned a mentor and I could not have asked for a better one.  TEF connected us.  Now the mentorship continues, and I know I will always have an ear to share my thoughts about the business with a person who can also offer advice”.

Mavis Mduchwa, an agribusiness entrepreneur from Botswana, founded Chabana Farms, a poultry farm providing training and work for unemployed young people.  Even though agriculture accounts for 32% of Africa’s gross domestic product, landownership and access to land remains a significant challenge for many farmers, especially women.

According to Mduchwa, “in Botswana, about 80% of people survive on agriculture, and many of them are women.  But, if as a women you want to turn it into a business, you have a challenge of finding land.” Mduchwa has used the seed capital and training from TEF to significantly expand her operations.

The Tony Elumelu Foundation and the European Commission are proud to partner to unlock the dynamic potential of African women entrepreneurs, directly catalysing African’s economic growth and contributing to Africa’s prosperity and social development.

The programme co-funded by the European Union, the Organisation of African, Caribbean, and Pacific State (OACPS), and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), will further scale the Foundation’s efforts in directly addressing some of the most endemic challenges to African start-ups – skills and capacity gaps, financial constraints and lack of access to mentoring, networks and market linkages.

Following completion of the programme, the entrepreneurs will stay connected to partners and to each other through their lifetime membership on TEFConnect.  TEF has set up Country Chapters in 54 African countries to support the entrepreneurs as they grow and expand their businesses.

Sputnik is live from Brussels, where EU leaders are gathering for the first day of the European Council meeting. Heads of European states and governments are set to discuss the pandemic situation across the bloc, work on coronavirus vaccines, and relations with London following the implementation of a withdrawal agreement. They are also expected to discuss a sanctions regime for individuals over human rights violations.

LONDON: The European Union (EU) on Thursday set out contingency plans as talks with the UK on a post-Brexit trade agreement continue to hang in the balance after both sides declared that there are still “large gaps” to be overcome ahead of the December-end deadline.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had flown to Brussels in a last-minute dash to try and thrash out a breakthrough with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen over dinner on Wednesday.

However, their talks failed to find a way forward on three key divergences around fishing rights, level playing field rules and future governance mechanisms.

“We had a lively and interesting discussion on the state of play across the list of outstanding issues. We gained a clear understanding of each other’s positions. They remain far apart,” said Von der Leyen.

“We are willing to grant access to the single market to our British friends, it’s the largest single market in the world. But the conditions have to be fair. They have to be fair for our workers and for our companies and this balance of fairness has not been achieved so far. We will take a decision on Sunday,” she said, ahead of an EU summit on Thursday.

EU leaders will be briefed about the talks at the summit, although Brexit is not on the official discussion agenda.

It would now seem that Sunday, December 13, would be a kind of hard deadline after UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it was “unlikely” the negotiations would be extended beyond Sunday.

“I think we view it as a point when we need some finality. I’m just a bit reticent ever to say – you can never say never with these EU negotiations,” he told Sky News.

“Of course, it depends if the EU moves. If the EU moves substantially and actually, we’re only dotting a few Is or crossing a few Ts, it might be different. But I think without movement on the crucial two, three areas that I’ve described, I think that will be a point of finality. And that’s certainly the way the UK side is approaching it,” he said.

Despite the two sides ordering their Chief Negotiators to resume talks until the weekend, they also agreed that trade talks remained “very difficult” and there are still “major differences between the two sides”.

Prior to his trip to Brussels on Wednesday, Johnson had told MPs the EU wanted the “automatic right” to punish the UK in the future, if it does not comply with new EU laws. He also suggested the EU wanted to keep control of fishing rights in UK waters beyond the end of the Brexit transition period on December 31.

The UK government has called on Brussels to recognise “two basic points of principle that no other country in the world would accept in dealing with the EU or anyone else as an independent state”.

“The concept the UK would leave the transition period as an independent coastal state but without control of our fisheries; that’s something that no country in the world has accepted, or is in the position of – why would the UK,” questioned Raab, in reference to one of the biggest stumbling blocks to a deal.

“We’ll accept the kind of requirements in the EU’s own free trade agreements, whether it’s South Korea or Canada,” he said.

Unless the UK and EU are able to thrash out and ratify a deal by the end of this month, Britain will have left the 27-member economic bloc on January 1, 2021, with the prospect of tariffs and quotas on goods as both sides trade on World Trade Organisation (WTO) terms. AK CPS