Negotiations are in progress on the nature of the, primarily economic, relationship between Great Britain and the European Union now that the former has taken its leave of and independence from the former. The relationship being negotiated is primarily economic; although, law enforcement, judicial cooperation, foreign policy, security, and defense are under discussion, also. The functional deadline for these negotiations is 31 December 2020, after which the Brits have said they’re done, deal or no deal.
Ten rounds of meetings are scheduled every three weeks from Monday, March 2, until October when a deal is desired.
Following which enacting legislation would need to be passed by both sides in order to bring the deal to life. “Most experts” think this is a tight schedule.
It need not be, though: the putative tightness of this schedule is directly and strictly a function of the degree of intransigence that will be exhibited by the EU’s negotiators. I hold out no great expectations here; the EU has been operating in bad faith, using its position to discourage other dissatisfied nations from going out from the Union, ever since the Brits voted for sovereignty.
In this current round of negotiations, too, the Brits appear more serious than the EU.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson threatened to accelerate [the schedule] further last week, saying the UK would end talks as early as June if negotiations had failed to progress by then.
It needn’t be a tight schedule, nor need it be “tightened” further. Again, that’s up to the continental Europeans.
Sadly, the EU’s intransigence is demonstrated in a couple of areas:
- EU wants the UK to enact EU regulations and laws regarding business subsidies, labor law, the environment
- EU wants its Common Fisheries Policy to apply in British territorial waters, especially British coastal waters
Nor is the matter of EU labor movement entirely settled; the EU still hopes for free access—essentially waiver of British national borders—for EU workers to British territory.
These run directly counter to Great Britain’s national sovereignty; of course, the continental Europeans know this full well. It’s why they demand these accessions.