EU will need to focus on avoiding cliff edge in Brexit talks

The European Union will have to limit talks on its future relationship with the United Kingdom to avoiding another cliff-edge, a senior EU official said on Tuesday, after Britain confirmed it would definitely leave the bloc by the end of 2020.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to outlaw any extension of a planned Brexit transition period beyond 2020 and use the prospect of a cliff-edge to demand a comprehensive free trade deal in less than 11 months. "Given all the signals... we are well-advised to take seriously that the UK does not intend to go for an extension of the transition and we need to be prepared for that," said Sabine Weyand, the director-general of the EU's trade department.

"That means in the negotiations we have to look at those issues where failing to reach an agreement by 2020 would lead to another cliff-edge situation," she told a seminar organized by the EPC think tank in Brussels. Weyand said the European Commission, which coordinates trade policy for EU countries, was ready to start negotiations very quickly after Britain left the EU at the end of January and was very clear about its priorities.

Any duty-free, quota-free deal would need to be accompanied with guarantees of a level playing field in areas such as state aid and competition, environmental and labor law, and taxation. This would go beyond requirements set in recent deals such as with Japan or Mercosur because these countries were further away and less economically integrated with the European Union.

The two sides will also be looking for deals in other areas, such as fisheries, security, and aviation. "All these things need to be coordinated so that we maximize our negotiating leverage," Weyand said.

The Commission is due on Tuesday afternoon to brief the remaining 27 EU countries on its work program for negotiations with Britain from January until the end of 2020. One EU diplomat said Johnson's proposed deadline would leave both sides worse off.

"Haste will come at the expense of services and security. This means we are pretty much guaranteed a WTO-style exit," the diplomat said.