Statement from David Frost, UK Chief Negotiator, following 7th round of negotiations with the EU

Statement from David Frost, UK Chief Negotiator, to conclude this week’s negotiating round with the EU.

ROUND 7 STATEMENT

David Frost, UK Chief Negotiator, said:

“We have just concluded the seventh round of negotiations with the EU. As I said last week, agreement is still possible, and it is still our goal, but it is clear that it will not be easy to achieve. Substantive work continues to be necessary across a range of different areas of potential UK-EU future cooperation if we are to deliver it.

“We have had useful discussions this week but there has been little progress.

“The EU is still insisting not only that we must accept continuity with EU state aid and fisheries policy, but also that this must be agreed before any further substantive work can be done in any other area of the negotiation, including on legal texts. This makes it unnecessarily difficult to make progress. There are other significant areas which remain to be resolved and, even where there is a broad understanding between negotiators, there is a lot of detail to work through. Time is short for both sides.

“We have been clear from the outset about the principles underlying the UK approach. We are seeking a relationship which ensures we regain sovereign control of our own laws, borders, and waters, and centred upon a trading relationship based on an FTA like those the EU has concluded with a range of other international partners, together with practical arrangements for cooperation in areas such as aviation, scientific programmes, and law enforcement. When the EU accepts this reality in all areas of the negotiation, it will be much easier to make progress.

“We will continue to work hard to reach an agreement. Chief Negotiators and their teams have agreed to remain in close contact over the next two weeks before the next Round in London in the week of 7 September.”

ENDS

STRICLY BACKGROUND ONLY – not for quoting

On trade in goods we had a constructive round of talks on Market Access, Rules of Origin and Customs covering technical issues within each. The EU also asked questions regarding our SPS regime and third country listing process.

On services, investment and other FTA issues, the UK and EU had further technical discussions on a number of issues, including financial services, investment, SMEs, intellectual property and digital. Unfortunately the Commission continues to refuse to engage in any detailed, text-based negotiation.

On fisheries, our position remains unchanged - we will not accept any proposals which compromise UK sovereignty over our own fishing waters, and we look for a relationship based on the EU’s existing bilateral arrangement with Norway, the most relevant precedent for relationships between two independent coastal states. This week, there was no progress on quota sharing. The EU reiterated that the UK position is a “no go” for them and they could accept minor changes to historic track record at best. The UK restated the need for more realism from the EU on the scale of the change that results from our leaving the EU; this is not a request but the legal default under international law. The EU highlighted access to waters as a key issue requiring resolution but subsequently declined to discuss it. There was a more positive exchange on the stocks within scope of the agreement, in order to make progress towards a consolidated list. We had also hoped to discuss cooperation, objectives for the agreement and TAC fallback and presented room documents on each issue. Unfortunately, the EU refused to engage on these issues in the room due to their self-imposed requirement to see progress on quota sharing first.

On the so-called “level playing field” both sides engaged in a detailed round of talks covering the structure of the text, subsidies, competition, tax and state owned-enterprises (SOEs). We sought to make progress on issues on which the Parties are more aligned and had a constructive set of discussions. A key challenge remains on subsidy control.

On law enforcement we continued discussions on the capabilities and the EU’s preconditions (fundamental rights and data protection). Though we have made progress on the preconditions over the summer, some difficult issues remain particularly where the EU’s asks go significantly beyond precedent. We had positive discussions on Prüm, cooperation with EU Agencies and Mutual Legal Assistance arrangements but there is still work to do in particular on surrender and the exchange of passenger name records. We hope to continue constructive discussions in the next round, working on practical and mutually acceptable solutions in these areas.

On energy, there was progress, and we had constructive discussions on possible efficient electricity trading arrangements over the interconnectors outside of the EU’s Internal Energy Market. Further technical analysis and discussion is needed to understand how these could work in practice and if they can provide benefits to UK and EU businesses and consumers. Such arrangements could enable efficient trade with the island of Ireland and support renewable investments in the North Sea. The EU are continuing to push a series of supporting obligations, many of which are not relevant to cross-border trade.

On UK participation in Union programmes we had in depth technical discussions on the terms for the UK’s potential future participation and corresponding financial contributions to programmes, and on some programme specific details including Horizon Europe, Euratom R&T, Erasmus+, and Copernicus. While the discussions were constructive, further discussions are needed to establish a package of fair and appropriate terms for participation.

On road haulage we again set out our position that we should seek to agree reciprocal rights to do work within our respective territories as well as between them. We are clear that this cannot and should not amount to ‘single market’ levels of access, but agreement on the matter would bring clear benefits for EU as well as UK hauliers.

On aviation we had helpful exchanges on aviation safety and air services. The UK reiterated the flexibilities we had shown in the previous round, in an attempt to move closer to an agreement, and talked about the capacity building process the CAA was undergoing.

On social security coordination we had constructive discussions on healthcare arrangements, including the provisions around an EHIC-type scheme.

On governance, we had detailed discussions on the committee structures which might support any agreement.