EU, British negotiators poised to announce post-Brexit trade deal

Gulf Today Report

European Union and British negotiators worked through the night and right into Christmas Eve were expected to announce a Christmas Eve trade deal Thursday after ten months of Brexit talks dragged out over yet another late night session.

The two sides had hoped to put the finishing touches on a trade deal that should avert a chaotic economic break between the two sides on New Year’s Day.

"It will hopefully be an early start tomorrow morning," European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer tweeted just after midnight, advising reporters and diplomats alike to grab some sleep as the finishing touches were applied.

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Several hours earlier, European officials had confidently told journalists: "We are in the final phase."

After resolving the remaining fair-competition and fisheries issues on Wednesday, negotiators combed through hundreds of pages of legal text that should become the provisional deal for a post-Brexit relationship after nine months of talks.

EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier arrives for talks in Brussels, Belgium. File/Reuters

Sources on both sides said the long and difficult negotiations were on the cusp of being wrapped up as negotiators, holed up at EU headquarters in Brussels with a stack of pizzas, worked to deliver the text to their leaders at dawn on Thursday.

Everyone awaited early morning appearances by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to announce the deal. The agreement then goes to the 27 EU capitals seeking unanimous approval, as well as the blessing of the EU and British parliaments.

Despite the breakthrough, key aspects of the future relationship between the 27-nation bloc and its former member remain uncertain. But it leaves the mutually dependent but often fractious UK-EU relationship on a much more solid footing than a disruptive no-deal split.

The focus in talks had shifted since Monday to cross-Channel calls between Johnson and von der Leyen after exhausted officials failed to close the gap on how to share access to UK fishing waters.

The remaining differences between the two camps were narrow but deep, in particular over fishing, with EU crews facing a dramatic cut in their catch from British waters.

London has pushed to reduce EU fishing fleets' share of the estimated 650-million-euro ($793 million) annual haul by more than a third, with changes phased in over three years.