BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) – The European Union and Britain both said a post-Brexit deal was still some way off and differences persisted on Monday over putting in place their earlier divorce deal as they began a decisive week of talks in Brussels.

Britain left the EU last January and is locked in negotiations on a new trade deal from 2021, as well as on implementing the divorce, as set out in the Withdrawal Agreement, especially on the sensitive Irish border.

EU national leaders will assess the state of play at a summit next month, with a no-deal Brexit still possible.

Negotiations have stumbled over fisheries, fair competition and settling disputes, and Brexit descended into fresh chaos this month when London proposed draft laws that would undermine the earlier agreement.

“The UK’s positions are far apart from what the EU can accept, a deputy head of the bloc’s executive Commission, Maros Sefcovic, said on Monday after talks with Michael Gove, the minister handling the divorce deal.

“We maintain that the bill, if adopted in its current form, would constitute an extremely serious violation of … the Withdrawal Agreement and of international law,” he said, urging speedy progress before he meets Gove again in mid-October.

Gove said the clauses of the Internal Market Bill that undercut the Withdrawal Treaty would remain.

“We want to make sure that the Withdrawal Agreement is implemented in full,” Gove told reporters. “But those clauses are there, they’re in legislation … And those clauses will remain in that bill.”

TRADE TALKS

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said in London that Britain’s focus was on progress in trade talks.

“Although the last two weeks of informal talks have been relatively positive there remains much to be done,” he said.

“We simply want the standard free trade agreement … we continue to be asked to accept provisions that do not reflect the reality of our status as an independent country.”

Trade talks resume in Brussels on Tuesday. Lasting until Friday morning and also due to cover energy links and transport, they are the final round of negotiations scheduled so far.

EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday are expected to authorise more talks before their next summit on Oct. 15-16. They will then assess whether to try push a deal over the line or prepare for the most damaging Brexit at the end of the year.

The EU says negotiators must seal an agreement by the end of October or early November, to leave time for ratification by the European Parliament and some national parliaments in the EU so that it can take effect from 2021 when Britain’s standstill transition ends after Brexit.

Otherwise, the delicate peace on the island of Ireland as well as an estimated trillion euros worth of annual EU-UK trade would be at risk as the sides would fall back on general World Trade Organization rules that include tariffs and quotas.

The European Union and Britain started a decisive week of talks on Monday on a new trade deal and implementing their divorce agreement before national leaders assess progress or the risk of a no-deal split on Thursday and Friday.

                                                    <p class="no_name">British cabinet office minister <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&amp;tag_person=Michael+Gove">Michael Gove</a> is set to attend a meeting of the joint committee responsible for implementing the <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&amp;tag_location=Northern+Ireland">Northern Ireland</a> protocol, which his government is threatening to renege on if it does not get its way in negotiations.</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">The three sticking points in talks so far remain the same: fisheries; state aid rules; and governance or dispute resolution.</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">An EU diplomat said however that “the mood music was a bit better” after Mr Gove expressed confidence about securing a trade deal.</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">“It’s high time that negotiations move forward, we need to make progress on issues like the level playing field, fisheries and governance,” the diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity.</p>
                                                                                                        <aside class="related-articles--instream has-3"/><p class="no_name">“The UK still has to restore trust after the Internal Market Bill escalation.”</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">Mr Gove meets a deputy head of the bloc’s executive Commission, Maros Sefcovic, on Monday in the <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&amp;tag_organisation=Joint+Committee">Joint Committee</a> tasked with implementing the divorce treaty and now looking at the contentious new UK laws.</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">“We are looking forward to continuing our discussions at the Joint Committee and working towards a satisfactory outcome for both sides,” a UK government spokeswoman said.</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">Trade talks headed by the EU’s <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&amp;tag_person=Michel+Barnier">Michel Barnier</a> and the UK’s <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&amp;tag_person=David+Frost">David Frost</a> resume in <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&amp;tag_location=Brussels">Brussels</a> on Tuesday. Lasting until Friday morning and also due to cover energy cooperation and transport, they are the final round of negotiations scheduled so far.</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday are expected to authorise more negotiations before their next summit on October 15th-16th.</p>
                                                    <p class="no_name">The EU says negotiators must seal a deal by the end of October or the first days of November at the latest, to leave enough time for ratification by the <a class="search" href="/topics/topics-7.1213540?article=true&amp;tag_organisation=European+Parliament">European Parliament</a> and some national parliaments so a deal can take effect from 2021 when Britain’s post-<a href="/news/world/brexit">Brexit</a> transition ends. </p>

                                                    <p class="no_name">- Reuters</p>

© 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

The court decision that annulled Apple’s need to pay €13 billion in back-taxes has been appealed by the European Commission (EC).

The appeal will send the case to Europe’s highest court where a final decision will be made.

The case focuses on whether a deal made between Apple and Irish tax authorities was illegal, with the EC alleging that the deal granted Apple €13 billion in unlawful tax advantages.

The EU’s second-highest court disagreed with these allegations, however, ruling in July that there was not enough evidence to demonstrate that the tech giant broke EU competition rules.

“The General Court annuls the contested decision because the Commission did not succeed in showing to the requisite legal standard that there was an advantage for the purposes of Article 107(1) TFEU,” the judgment [PDF] said.

In announcing the appeal, the commission said it believed the General Court had made a “number of errors of law” when making its judgment.

“We have to continue to use all tools at our disposal to ensure companies pay their fair share of tax. Otherwise, the public purse and citizens are deprived of funds for much-needed investments — the need for which is even more acute now to support Europe’s economic recovery,” European Commission EVP Margrethe Vestager said in a statement.

"If Member States give certain multinational companies tax advantages not available to their rivals, this harms fair competition in the European Union in breach of State aid rules," Vestager added. 

The EC originally made these allegations against Apple back in 2016, after a two-year investigation had found that Ireland issued two tax rulings to “substantially and artificially” lower Apple’s tax bills.

The deal allegedly saw Apple attribute all profits from two of its incorporated companies to a “head office” in Ireland, which had no employees and “could not have generated such profits”, the EC said at the time.

With all referendum votes counted, nearly 62 per cent said they wanted to keep free movement, while 38 per cent were against, the BBC reported.

Switzerland is not a member of the EU but has a series of interdependent treaties with Brussels which allow it to access to Europe’s free trade area.

The move to rein in immigration was proposed by the Swiss People’s Party (SVP), but opposed by the government.

A similar initiative to introduce quotas on immigrants from the EU to Switzerland narrowly passed in a 2014 referendum, damaging Swiss-EU relations.

Swiss people are given a direct say in their own affairs under the country’s system of direct democracy. They are regularly invited to vote on various issues in national or regional referendums.

Supporters of the anti-free movement plan said it would allow Switzerland to control its borders and select only the immigrants it wants.

Opponents argued it would plunge a healthy economy into recession at an uncertain time and deprive hundreds of thousands of Swiss citizens of their freedom to live and work across Europe.

A landlocked country that has observed neutrality for centuries, Switzerland has over time veered between seeking closer engagement with the EU, and preferring a more isolationist course.

Sunday’s referendum could have forced the Swiss government to unilaterally void its free movement agreement with the EU by invoking a so-called guillotine clause.

This clause would have impacted other bilateral deals on transport, research and trade with the EU, disrupting economic activity.

The president of the right-wing SVP, Marco Chiesa, conceded that his campaign had struggled to garner enough support for a proposal which was opposed by the government, parliament and tradio unions.

Given that opposition, Chiesa framed the campaign as a “fight between David and Goliath”. “But we will continue to fight for the country and take back control of immigration,” he said.

Opponents of the proposal said the result was an expression of Swiss support for open, bilateral relations with the EU. They said voters were worried about the economic cost of ending free movement during the coronavirus pandemic.

“The bilateral path is the right one for Switzerland and for the EU,” Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter told reporters. “The Swiss people have confirmed this path again today”.

“Today is a great day for the relations between the European Union and Switzerland,” tweeted European Council President Charles Michel. “The Swiss people have spoken & sent a clear message: together we have a great future ahead of us.”

–IANS

rt/