‘No deal’ Brexit warning on EU table as Barnier talks risk

Bloomberg

The European Union’s 27 remaining leaders may warn the UK that it faces crashing out of the bloc without a deal and call for contingency preparations, as an update due from the Brexit negotiators is set to highlight the limited progress made since March.
With Brexit negotiations slowly meandering towards the end of the latest three-month period as lawmakers in London bicker over the course the UK government should take, diplomats from the EU’s 27 other countries are now seriously considering whether a statement following a summit next week should say that “no deal” is a real proposition, according to two people familiar with
the discussions.
In a double plan of attack, they may warn their own governments to step up contingency planning to cope with the potential fallout of Britain falling over the cliff, while reiterating to the UK that its post-Brexit transition period won’t happen if a deal isn’t approved.
“There’s always a risk,” the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, told a behind-closed-doors meeting of Austrian lawmakers in Vienna, according to an official summary. More preparation work needs to be done in the EU’s capitals in case of a collapse of the talks, he told the lawmakers.
The summit, once billed as a final staging post in the negotiations before a concluding meeting in October, now looks set to focus on what hasn’t been agreed on rather than what has. The issue of how to keep the Irish border invisible has become the biggest sticking point and has seen hardly any progress since the UK made proposals two weeks ago, officials say. The EU leaders will probably call for talks to accelerate over the next few months to get an agreement on time and avoid a no-deal situation.

Political Issues
While UK and EU officials are holding low-level negotiations in Brussels this week, they’re unlikely to unblock the biggest political issues. Tuesday was expected to see officials focus on the Irish border, while officials will turn to the future relationship on Wednesday.
The negotiators were planning to publish a report as early as Tuesday on progress in the Brexit withdrawal agreement since the last summit in March. While there has been some movement on the more technical aspects of the UK’s divorce from the bloc it joined in 1973, the document is likely to underscore that the Irish border, the extent to which the European Court of Justice will rule on disputes arising from the Brexit treaty, as well as the issue of whether the UK will recognise the EU’s special status labeling for food and drink, remain largely unresolved.
These items form part of the broader Brexit deal that must be struck if the UK is to keep trading relations in place and benefit from the 21-month transition period that was provisionally agreed on earlier this year.

‘UK’s security partnership bid needs more realism’
Bloomberg

European Union chief negotiator Michel Barnier rejected the UK’s efforts to keep security ties almost unchanged after Brexit, saying Britain’s own negotiating red lines mean cooperation will be weaker.
Barnier called for more “realism” from the British government and said leaving the bloc has “consequences”.
Mutual trust is based on shared rules, and the oversight of the European Court of Justice, whose jurisdiction PM Theresa May has said must end after Brexit.
He also rejected the UK’s request to remain in the European arrest-warrant scheme, saying it’s based on free movement of people. Putting an end to uncontrolled migration from Europe is another red line for May. “If you leave this ecosystem, you lose the benefits,” he said.