‘Expect a Sell Out’: Warning as Boris Heads to Last-Minute Brussels Brexit Talks

LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 09: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson returns from the weekl
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Oliver JJ Lane

The European Union is pushing for a “partnership agreement” in the dying hours of talks, Brexit leader Nigel Farage warns as PM Boris Johnson prepares to head to Brussels for dinner with the European Commission President.

Boris Johnson will travel to Brussels on Wednesday afternoon to have a working dinner with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, a meeting of “principles” — otherwise known as leaders — billed as being the final make-or-break talks in a Brexit process that has taken over four years.

On Tuesday night, von der Leyen said in comments on social media that she would discuss “the Partnership Agreement” with Boris Johnson during their meal. While the remark appears innocent, the specific use of the term ‘partnership agreement’ — capitalised as a proper noun in the original — has a special meaning, Brexit leader Nigel Farage warned Wednesday morning.

Also taking to social media, the long-time freedom campaigner wrote: “Von der Leyen says she and Boris will discuss a “Partnership Agreement” agreement in Brussels today. This would be appropriate if we intended to join the EU, not leave it. These deals mean compliance with EU law. If Boris gets on a plane for this we can expect a sell-out.”

The European Union has signed Partnerships with nations for years as part of the process of joining the bloc — formally, they are known as Accession Partnership agreements. Romania had one before it joined the EU, for instance, and Macedonia — which is presently trying to join the EU — has one presently.

The coming of these allegedly final talks has caused concern on both sides of the English Channel — among Brexiteers in Britain concerned the government is on the verge of a sell-out, and in European capitals worried that Britain may be allowed to go its own way. Germany’s Angela Merkel moved to reassure her own parliament Wednesday when she said it remained the case that Europe would not accept a deal that saw Britain achieve its own negotiating positions — namely to be free from the European Union’s rules and regulations to pursue its own destiny.

The German Chancellor said: “we are also prepared for conditions we cannot accept. So if there are conditions coming from the British side which we cannot accept then we will go on our own way without an exit agreement. Because one thing is certain: the integrity of the single market has to be maintained.”

Boris Johnson attempted to mollify concerns on Wednesday as he spoke to Britain’s Parliament before heading to Brussels. He struck a positive note while warning that if the EU was unwilling to compromise, there would be no deal.

He said: “a good deal is still there to be done, and I look forward to discussing it with commissioner von der Leyen tonight… our friends in the EU are currently insisting that if they pass a new law in the future, that if we in this country don’t follow suite, they want the automatic right to punish us, and to retaliate.

And they are saying the UK should be the only country in the world to not have sovereign control over its fishing waters. And I do not think, Mr Speaker, they are terms that any Prime Minister should accept.”

Concluding, the Prime Minister said again that Britain would prosper, deal or no deal — outcomes that have come to be characterised as either a ‘Canada’ or ‘Australia’ situations, given the relationships those two close-British allies already have with the EU themselves. Mr Johnson said: “I must tell the house… whether the terms on which we deliver our new trading arrangement, whether they resemble those of Australia’s with the EU, or of Canada with the EU, I have absolutely no doubt that from January 1st this country is going to prosper mightily.”

In short, on the verge of what have been called 11th-hour final talks, very little appears to have substantially changed — the United Kingdom is seeking a trade deal like those the bloc has already signed with other nations in the past, with similar conditions. To have any less, in the view of British Brexiteers, would be a serious betrayal of the spirit of the 2016 vote and a failure of the government to deliver on key promises.

The European Union, on the other hand is concerned that a member state leaving the bloc and retaining perks of membership — even if those perks are shared by other third parties through trade deals — without continuing to be subject to the rules and laws that bind other members, would seriously damage the single market. For Brussels, a deal must come with wide-ranging conditions.

In a blow for Brexiteers, the UK government has already agreed to allow EU laws to continue to apply in some areas, whether there is a deal or not.

Northern Ireland, a full and equal part of the United Kingdom but geographically on the Island of Ireland — west Britain — rather than on the island of Great Britain, shares a land border with EU member stare the Republic of Ireland. After talks in Brussels earlier this week, Boris Johnson’s Brexit-lieutenant Michael Gove agreed that EU law would continue to apply in some cases in this area — this, he said, was to prevent a “hard border” between the two Irelands.

While protecting the Ireland-Ulster border has been a major concern for actors like the European Union and some United States politicians — including Joe Biden — this agreement threatens to place a customs border inside the United Kingdom itself. Supermarkets in Northern Ireland, for instance, will now merely have a “grace period” to bring in domestic food supplies from other parts of the same country, the United Kingdom.

Northern Ireland unionists — those who believe the United Kingdom should not break up, and in particular those who are against that part of the UK becoming part of a united Ireland — say the change endangers the nation.

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