Brussels wants to maintain the current arrangement on fishing, which involves French boats catching two thirds of the haddock brought ashore from the British Irish SeaThe European Union is refusing to discuss new British proposals on a future fisheries treaty despite it being the most difficult element in trade and security talks that have stalled. David Frost, Britain’s chief negotiator with the EU, and Michel Barnier will hold informal talks in London tomorrow in an attempt to revive negotiations as the prospect of a no-deal scenario looms at the end of next month. Mr Barnier, the EU’s lead negotiator and a former European commissioner, has refused to discuss the fishing proposals because of his “parallelism” policy, which means that he will not hold talks on any issue before Britain first agrees to significant concessions. The EU is blaming Britain’s failure to back down for the impasse in negotiations. Jean-Yves Le

Source: The Times August 31, 2020 17:15 UTC