Published: 09 June 2020  (Updated: 09 June 2020)

Brexit Updates – UK/EU Fourth Round of Negotiations

The fourth round of Brexit negotiations was carried out throughout week commencing 1 June.  The UK Government has yet to formally comment on the outcome of the negotiations. According to the statement issued on 5 June by Michel Barnier, the EU Head of Task Force for Relations with the UK, no progress has been made and the main key issues on fisheries and level playing field are still to be resolved. 

In the statement, the EU remains open to the extension of the transition period; however, it does recognise this is not the current position of the UK Government.  Should there be no extension, the legal text of the Free Trade Agreement should be negotiated by 31 October at the latest, to provide enough time to ratify it in both areas; this leaves less than five months for negotiations to be continued.  The EU has therefore suggested to continue the negotiations during the summer, and whilst the EU hopes for a better efficiency when recovering face-to-face discussions, it is also time to start focussing on other priorities.

 

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