Brexit Archives

Talks on a post-Brexit trade deal between the EU and the UK appear to be on the brink of collapse after the chief negotiators from the two sides blamed each other on Friday (15 May) r for the ‘stalemate’ at the heart of the talks.

Divisions have opened within the UK government following reports that Boris Johnson’s administration is preparing to offer increased access to the UK market for US agriculture exports and possibly lower the bar on environmental and health standards.

With a month until Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen agree on whether an EU-UK trade pact can be finalised this year, it is hard to find anyone who thinks a ‘no deal’ scenario is not the odds-on favourite. Progress has been, to be kind, minimal, and the UK shows no interest in extending the talks beyond the end of its post-Brexit transition period in December.

France and the Netherlands have joined forces to urge the European Union to enforce environmental and labour standards more forcefully with countries the bloc signs trade deals with, according to a document seen by Reuters.

The United Kingdom is preparing to walk away from trade talks with the EU and blame the impasse on the coronavirus pandemic, EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan said on Thursday (7 May)

The UK and US on Tuesday (5 May) kicked off the first round of talks on a trade deal which London has made a priority following its exit from the EU. The talks with Washington are set to run alongside post-Brexit trade negotiations with the EU.

While most of Britain and Europe remain understandably preoccupied with the coronavirus, talks on a future EU-UK trade deal have been largely ignored. But there are less than two months until a summit where Boris Johnson and EU leaders will decide whether a deal can be reached this year, and the UK appears to be in no rush.

23 June will mark the fourth anniversary of the UK’s decision to leave the EU. But while the UK has officially been out of the bloc since 31 January, the talks on future relations underscore how little has changed in those years.

The UK minister in charge of post-Brexit trade with the EU insisted on Monday (27 April) that it is “entirely possible” to have a deal by end of December 2020 and that the tight timeline should 'concentrate' minds, brushing aside a recent critical assessment from Brussels.

A frustrated Michel Barnier, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator, came close to accusing London of derailing talks on a future EU-UK trade pact on Friday (24 April), warning that there were “serious difficulties ahead” if a ‘no deal’ scenario is to be avoided in two months’ time

The European Union's chief Brexit negotiator said after the first day of renewed talks with Britain that the bloc is aiming for "tangible progress" by June on the shape of a new relationship before London severs its ties with the bloc at the end of the year.

To save fields of asparagus and strawberries threatened with rotting, Britain is mobilising a workforce of students, the unemployed -- and workers from Europe.

Boris Johnson’s government doubled-down on Thursday (16 April) on its threat to walk away from the EU Single Market this year if a deal on a successor trade pact cannot be reached. It hinted that trading with the EU on World Trade Organisation terms would give the UK more ‘flexibility’ to manage the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

Pro-European centrist Keir Starmer was on Saturday (4 April) unveiled as new Labour party leader, heralding a shift in Britain's main opposition party after a crushing election defeat under veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn and years of ideological infighting.

It is now nearly two months since the United Kingdom left the European Union. It left with the legal certainty and clarity provided by the Withdrawal Agreement and the accompanying Political Declaration, writes MEP David McAllister.

The UK government has been accused of ‘putting Brexit over breathing’ after it confirmed it had opted out of an EU joint procurement scheme for urgently needed medical equipment to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

French President Emmanuel Macron threatened to close France's border with Britain on Friday if Prime Minister Boris Johnson failed to take more stringent measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak, a French newspaper reported.

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has the coronavirus, he announced on Thursday (19 March).

Britain and the European Union have exchanged draft legal texts containing their proposals for how relations between the two sides should work after the end of a Brexit transition period on 31 December, a British government spokesman said on Wednesday (18 March).

Britain's biggest supermarkets, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda, imposed limits on purchases of pasta, toilet roll and long life milk on Wednesday (18 March) after alarmed shoppers stripped shelves bare to hoard for possible isolation in the coronavirus outbreak.

The United States and Britain led a multi-billion-dollar global fightback against economic havoc wreaked by the coronavirus as the European Union shut its borders to travellers from outside for 30 days to stem the pandemic's ferocious spread.

UK and EU officials on Tuesday (17 March) cancelled the second round of post-Brexit trade talks planned for this week 

Boris Johnson's obsession with obtaining a Brexit deal in June has over-ridden the need to act decisively in response to Coronavirus. But the signs of panic are emerging, writes Denis MacShane.

The French municipal elections which will take place on 16 March are the first since President Macron was elected and an important test of his popularity. They are also the first set of municipal elections in which British citizens in France will be unable to vote.