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Leaving the <a href="/topic/european-union" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-4541341-/topic/european-union" data-vars-event-id="c23">European Union</a> without a trade deal would still be a "good outcome" for the UK, <a href="/topic/boris-johnson" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-4541341-/topic/boris-johnson" data-vars-event-id="c23">Boris Johnson</a> has said.































In comments due to be made on Monday, the Prime Minister will tell Brussels that if no agreement can be reached by the <a href="/topic/european-council" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-4541341-/topic/european-council" data-vars-event-id="c23">European Council</a> in October, then both sides should be prepared to "accept that and move on".




































The remarks are the latest in a series of statements from senior Government figures outlining a hardening stance towards the bloc.

The UK’s negotiator Lord David Frost and Foreign Secretary <a href="/topic/dominic-raab" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-4541341-/topic/dominic-raab" data-vars-event-id="c23">Dominic Raab</a> both used interviews at the weekend to vow not to back down on the remaining sticking points.



































Lord Frost is due to hold another round of key negotiations in London with the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, this week, as they look to find a solution to the remaining issues in order to have a deal readied for when the transition period comes to an end on December 31.































The Prime Minister will make clear on Monday that time is running out if the two sides are to ratify an agreement in time for 2021.

“We are now entering the final phase of our negotiations with the EU,” Mr Johnson is expected to say.

"The EU have been very clear about the timetable. I am too. There needs to be an agreement with our European friends by the time of the European Council on October 15 if it’s going to be in force by the end of the year.























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"So there is no sense in thinking about timelines that go beyond that point.































"If we can’t agree by then, then I do not see that there will be a free trade agreement between us, and we should both accept that and move on."































<aside class="inline-block inline-related item-count-4 align-right"><h2 class="box-title">Read more</h2>

</aside>Mr Johnson will argue that collapsing the trade talks next month would still represent "a good outcome for the UK" and that his administration was preparing for such an eventuality.

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The Prime Minister is planning to say that no-deal means the country would have a "trading arrangement with the EU like Australia’s", meaning it would fall back on trade protocols as set by the World Trade Organisation when doing business with its largest trading partner.























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"I want to be absolutely clear that, as we have said right from the start, that would be a good outcome for the UK," the Conservative Party leader will argue.































"As a Government we are preparing, at our borders and at our ports, to be ready for it. We will have full control over our laws, our rules, and our fishing waters.































"We will have the freedom to do trade deals with every country in the world. And we will prosper mightily as a result.























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“We will of course always be ready to talk to our EU friends even in these circumstances.

"We will be ready to find sensible accommodations on practical issues such as flights, lorry transport, or scientific co-operation, if the EU wants to do that.































"Our door will never be closed and we will trade as friends and partners – but without a free trade agreement."































But Mr Johnson, in an apparent bid to focus minds as another set of talks gets under way on Tuesday, will say that there is "still an agreement to be had", one that is based on deals Brussels has previously struck with “Canada and so many others”.























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According to Downing Street, the Prime Minister will add: "Even at this late stage, if the EU are ready to rethink their current positions and agree this I will be delighted.

“But we cannot and will not compromise on the fundamentals of what it means to be an independent country to get it.”

Mr Raab told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme that the negotiations had been “boiled down to two outstanding bones of contention” – control of UK fishing waters and the level of taxpayer support the Government will be able to provide businesses – and argued neither “principle” could not be “haggled away”.







But Mr Raab said that he would prefer to leave with a deal and that there would be “damaging impacts” felt on both sides of the Channel if no deal was reached.







The Mail on Sunday reported that Downing Street has created a transition hub, with handpicked officials across Government departments working to ensure the UK is ready to trade without a deal when the transition period ceases.








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            <aside class="tags"><span>More about:</span>

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                <a href="/topic/european-union">
                  European Union
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                <a href="/topic/boris-johnson">
                  Boris Johnson
                </a>

                <span class="separator">|</span>
                <a href="/topic/european-council">
                  European Council
                </a>

                <span class="separator">|</span>
                <a href="/topic/dominic-raab">
                  Dominic Raab
                </a>

                <span class="separator">|</span>
                <a href="/topic/david-frost">
                  David Frost
                </a>

                <span class="separator">|</span>
                <a href="/topic/michel-barnier">
                  Michel Barnier
                </a>

            </aside>

… t scared of leaving the EU transition period without a … that Britain would stop following EU rules “come what may … between the UK and the EU. EU negotiator Michel Barnier warning that … word seriously.” On rejecting EU bids to continue having influence …

The UK “won’t blink” in the crucial talks on post-Brexit economic arrangements, Britain’s chief negotiator David Frost warned his EU colleagues in an interview with the Mail on Sunday, insisting that the UK would not become a “client state” of Brussels by accepting its restrictions on fishing rights and vetoes of British laws.

In his first interview since he assumed office in January, Frost stressed the EU needed to realise that Johnson’s Cabinet was adopting a more determined and balanced approach than Theresa May’s government.

“We came in after a government and negotiating team that had blinked and had its bluff called at critical moments and the EU had learned not to take our word seriously”, Frost started off, adding that what Britain has of late been doing is “to get them to realise that we mean what we say and they should take our position seriously”.

Lord Frost said Brussels “have not accepted that in key areas of our national life we want to be able to control our own laws and do things our way and use the freedoms that come after Brexit”, stressing the country would in no way “compromise on the fundamentals of having control over our own laws”.

He went on to emotionally outline what being independent is about and what British people voted for:

“We are not going to accept level playing field provisions that lock us in to the way the EU do things; we are not going to accept provisions that give them control over our money or the way we can organise things here in the UK and that should not be controversial”.

Frost noted that Downing Street has been making extensive preparations to ensure that businesses and citizens are ready for the end of the transition period in any scenario – “outside the customs union, outside the single market, and outside the EU”.

“Obviously, lots of preparation was done last year, we are ramping up again and have been for some time under Michael Gove’s authority”, Frost detailed, stressing that most importantly, the UK “wants to get back the powers to control our borders”.

He said Britain isn’t ruling out any type of trade agreement:

“If we can reach an agreement that regulates trade like Canada’s, great. If we can’t, it will be an Australian-like trading agreement and we are fully ready for that”, he said.

‘Re-Gripping the Agenda’ in Run-up to Eighth Round of Talks

Frost’s comments come ahead of his counterpart Michel Barnier’s arrival in London for a fresh round of talks on Tuesday.

This week’s round of talks, the eighth, marks the final phase of the negotiations, with Lord Frost’s team calling for “more realism” from the EU to break the deadlock and meet the transition period deadline for a comprehensive bilateral deal.

The bullish Brexit rhetoric is part of an attempt by Johnson’s government to “re-grip the agenda” after a tumultuous summer marked by endless U-turns on issues such as COVID policy and A-level exam grades.

The other day, Frost even issued a warning to Brussels suggesting the bloc’s demands on fishing and state subsidies could “limit the progress” potentially made next week.

EU’s Stance ‘Limiting Potential Progress’

Indicating that the UK could indeed be weighing a no-deal divorce from the EU, Frost said that London has been clear about its stance from the very beginning:

 “The EU still insists we change our positions on state aid and fisheries if there are to be substantive textual discussions on anything else”.

“We will negotiate constructively but the EU’s stance may, realistically, limit the progress we can make next week”, he concluded.

Frost tweeted the comments after his European counterpart Michel Barnier said that while the UK can retain control over the waters washing its coasts, “the fish which are inside those waters” are “another story”.

The bloc has been aiming to retain access for its fishing boats, while Downing Street insists that British trawlers should by all means be given top priority.

Separately, Brussels is seeking a “level playing field” on state aid rules that would virtually tie Britain to EU regulations after the transition period expires in late December.

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will not blink first in Brexit trade negotiations with the European Union and is not scared of a no-deal exit at the end of the year, the country’s top Brexit negotiator warned the bloc on Sunday.

Britain left the EU on Jan. 31 but talks have so far made little headway on agreeing a new trade deal for when a status-quo transition arrangement ends in December.

“We came in after a government and negotiating team that had blinked and had its bluff called at critical moments and the EU had learned not to take our word seriously,” negotiator David Frost told the Mail on Sunday.

“So a lot of what we are trying to do this year is to get them to realize that we mean what we say and they should take our position seriously,” he was quoted as saying.

Talks are due to resume in London on Tuesday but they have stalled over Britain’s insistence that it have full autonomy over state aid and its demands over fishing.

Britain says the EU is dragging its feet in talks and has failed to fully accept that it is now an independent country.

“We are not going to be a client state. We are not going to compromise on the fundamentals of having control over our own laws,” Frost told the Mail. “We are not going to accept level playing field provisions that lock us in to the way the EU do things.”

“That’s what being an independent country is about, that’s what the British people voted for and that’s what will happen at the end of the year, come what may,” Frost said.

At heart, Britain is pressing one of the EU’s most sensitive buttons – the fear that a post-Brexit Britain could become a much more agile, deregulated free-market competitor on its border by using selective state aid.

“We cannot have a situation where the UK essentially is allowed to deregulate its economy to create competitive advantage in terms of reducing the cost base of doing business or indeed providing more state aid than is available in the EU single market and therefore creates competitive advantage that it’s looking to trade into tariff-free and quota-free,” Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said.

“Why would the EU ever facilitate that?” he said.

Frost said a lot of preparation had been done for a possible exit without a trade deal.

“I don’t think that we are scared of this at all,” Frost said. “If we can reach an agreement that regulates trade like Canada’s, great. If we can’t, it will be an Australian-like trading agreement and we are fully ready for that.”

As indicated in the European Commission’s Action Plan on financing sustainable growth, issued in March 2018, the lack of a clear definition of “environmentally-sustainable economic activities” presents one of the biggest obstacles to the European Union in financing its green deal and 2050 climate neutral target. 

With this in mind, on July 12, the EU taxonomy regulation entered into force with the objective of setting performance thresholds to be able to categorise environmentally-sustainable economic activities.

The EU taxonomy regulation is targeted towards three financial stakeholders: (i) financial market participants; (ii) large companies that are already required to provide a non-financial statement under the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD); and (iii) EU members states keen on issuing labels on green financial products or issuing green bonds.        

The EU taxonomy regulation will apply in two stages, as of January 1, 2022, for the first two environmental objectives – climate change mitigation and adaptation; and as of January 1, 2023, for the remaining four environmental objectives ‒ water, circular economy, pollution prevention and biodiversity.

Such an EU-wide classification system for environmentally-sustainable economic activities will be developed through the European Commission issuing two delegated acts following extensive consultation with all relevant stakeholders.  To assist the European Commission in the development of these delegated acts, a Platform for Sustainable Finance gathering various experts and stakeholders will be created, tasked with providing advice on the EU taxonomy technical screening criteria.  

The lack of a clear definition of ‘environmentally sustainable economic activities’ presents one of the biggest obstacles to the EU in financing its green deal