BRITAIN and the EU were seemingly on the cusp of reaching a post-Brexit trade deal last night.
It is “possible but far from certain” a Downing Street source told Reuters.
“There’s a very strong push to get it done before Christmas”, one diplomat told RTE.
“The idea that everyone comes back again on Sunday or Monday to start again … that will happen if necessary but there does seem to be a strong push to get it done before Christmas.”
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, is understood to have been in constant contact with Boris Johnson over the last 72 hours.
Reports suggest that after nine months of talks, the two sides have made progress on both the level playing field and on fishing.
After the UK leaves the EU in just seven days’ time, London wants British fishermen to be able to keep a larger share of their catch than under the current quota system.
It’s thought the EU is now willing to accept a 25% reduction in its access to the UK’s market.
Earlier, Ireland’s Taoiseach Micheal Martin said the UK has been pushing for 35% reduction instead.
He said the negotiations were “all down to fish, it would appear right now”.
EU member states have started to prepare procedures to put in place the new trade deal with the UK from January 1 if one is agreed, three diplomatic sources told Reuters.
During a meeting with the European Commission, which is negotiating with the UK on behalf of all the 27 member states in the bloc, diplomats in Brussels were told to be ready for a meeting on Thursday.
The European Parliament has said the deadline has long since passed for MEPs to formally ratify an agreement.
Instead, given that the transition period ends of Hogmanay, any deal would have to be provisionally applied.
That can still take up to a week to sort, as the treaty needs to be translated and scrutinised by the governments of the EU’s 27 member states.
READ MORE: 'Lunatic prospect': SNP's blistering attack on Westminster as Brexit time ticks
The prospects of a deal sent the pound up 0.8% to 90.28 against the euro.
Earlier on Wednesday, Cabinet minister Robert Jenrick said he is “reasonably optimistic” that a late deal will be agreed before the current trading arrangements expire at the end of the month.
He told Sky News that “serious areas of disagreement” remain on fishing and the “level playing field” measures aimed at preventing unfair competition on standards and state subsidies.
“We are working through those issues, our negotiators will keep going – the Prime Minister has been very clear that he is going to negotiate until the very end, which is December 31, because that is the right thing, it is what the British public would expect.
“But at the moment there isn’t sufficient progress, it isn’t a deal that the Prime Minister feels he can sign us up to because it doesn’t yet respect us, in full, as a sovereign, independent nation.”
France warned that the EU would not be pressed into agreeing a deal just because of the looming deadline.
French Europe minister Clement Beaune said a No Deal would be “catastrophic” for the UK and suggested the EU should hold out.
“We should not put ourselves, Europeans, under time pressure to finish by this hour or that day. Otherwise we would put ourselves in a situation to make bad concessions.”
Micheal Martin raised the prospect of officials working on the text of a Brexit deal on Christmas Day if a breakthrough comes before then.
The Taoiseach said he and other EU leaders were on stand-by to endorse any agreement that might emerge from negotiations between Brussels and the UK Government.
“On balance, I think, given the progress that has been made, that there should be a deal,” he told RTE Radio One.
“And I think that a No Deal would be an appalling shock to the economic system on top of Covid-19, which has really hit the respective economies of the UK, Ireland and the EU member states.
“In particular, our domestic economy has taken a very big hit. And so we do need a deal.”
On Tuesday, the EU’s lead negotiator, Michel Barnier, said they were making a “final push” to reach a deal.
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