EU chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, comments
- UK has not shown any true will on fisheries issue
- There was no progress in talks on level playing field
- UK "still a long way away" on agreement on governance of future partnership
- Fisheries, level playing field cannot be separated out from trade in new partnership
- Says "we cannot go on like this forever"
- The door is still open for a transition period extension
- Says new deal with the UK must be sealed by 31 October at the latest
No surprises here as negotiations continue to go nowhere. They've essentially resigned from the fact that they will get anything done by the end of June but will keep open the door for talks until the end of October now.
Should the UK extend the transition period, then the negotiating period will surely be prolonged once again. But as a reminder, Johnson has been adamant that they won't.
So far, the pound is having little reaction in all of this as cable nudged from 1.2630 levels to 1.2625 before settling back at current levels. EUR/GBP is mildly higher from 0.8960 to 0.8970 but overall the quid is holding up resiliently so far.
