The European Commission on Monday issued a recommendation to the European Council to open negotiations on a new partnership with the United Kingdom, the Commission announced in a press release.
The aim is to work out a “very ambitious partnership” for EU-UK post-Brexit relations, according to the Commission’s Chief Negotiator, Michel Barnier.
“We remain lucid,” Barnier said, since the most ambitious partnership was the one “we had, because we were members of the same union.”
The proposed mandate for the negotiators covers three main areas: economic partnership, security and governance.
It will be presented to the 27 member States and to the European Parliament so that it can be validated by the Council on 25 February. “We shall then be ready to begin the negotiations,” Barnier explained.
The chief negotiator said there would be two conditions to “this exceptional offer”: rules that also guarantee long-term equitable treatment on social, environmental and climate matters as well as state aid, and a fishing agreement that guarantees mutual access to each other’s markets and waters, with stable quotas.
The Brussels Times
