When does a Brexit deal need to be done by?
The Government had hoped that Brexit negotiations would be wrapped up by now but with talks on a “knife edge” the deadline to get a trade deal appears to be receding.
On December 7 Michel Barnier told MEPs that negotiations were in their final days, with Wednesday the new effective deadline, according to a source present.
The EU’s chief negotiator warned that he “cannot guarantee” a trade deal will be agreed, as he dismissed claims that an agreement on fisheries had been made.
UK sources said that Boris Johnson would not walk away from a deal just because a deadline had been reached and suggested talks could continue all week.
The Prime Minister will head to Brussels for last-ditch talks to try personally to salvage a Brexit deal after negotiators failed to make any “tangible progress” on Monday.
Meanwhile, a French assembly member for Emmanuel Macron's En Marche party, suggested that a trade deal struck by mid-December could still be ratified.
Alexandre Holroyd said: "I think it would be very difficult to explain to constituents if there is agreement say, on the 15th December, well apologies it's too late because we've got two weeks and we don't have enough to find a way to put it in place.
"So I think there is one deadline which is set in absolute stone which is 31st December and that is the absolute deadline."
Negotiators had hoped that talks that would be over on Monday night so that a potential deal could be translated into all of the languages of the 27 EU member states and studied by lawyers before a European Council meeting of EU leaders on Thursday.
However, there appears to be some flexibility on the date for the Brussels vote. Under an emergency EU plan revealed last month, the European parliament vote to seal a Brexit trade deal could be delayed until Dec 28.
The Brexit negotiations have been hit by a string of missed deadlines, with the Oct 15 date - originally set by the Prime Minister for a deal to be struck - already missed.
With divergence remaining in key areas, Mr Johnson and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will assess later whether a deal can be salvaged.
The two leaders spoke on Monday evening - their second call in a little over 48 hours - after their leading negotiators spent Sunday locked in detailed talks.
With the negotiations progressing slowly, one EU official warned that expectations that an agreement will be reached within 24 hours are low.
Mairead McGuinness, Ireland’s commissioner on the EU’s executive, said the next 48 hours were “very crucial”, but said that even if negotiators failed to reach an accord, the two sides would still have to discuss their future relationship in the new year.
Former Brexit Secretary David Davis suggested that negotiations would resolve at the “last minute”, potentially carrying on until the end of the month, which could necessitate a brief extension of the current transition period to enable the parliaments of Britain and the EU member states to ratify any deal.
Some Tory MPs are concerned that talks will result in an agreement "in principle" with details to be thrashed out later, which is unlikely to win the support of Brexiteers in Parliament.
On December 7 James Cleverly said that negotiations would continue until “we run out of time or a deal is done". The Foreign Office minister said it was unsurprising that trade negotiations with the EU are going "to the wire".
Asked how long they could continue, he told Sky News: "I don't have a particular day or minute", noting that the only absolute deadline was when transition ends with the close of the year.
Clement Beaune, France's foreign affairs minister, claimed on December 6 that the British side had said they would only need 24 hours to ratify an agreement.
“The British tell us that they would only need 24 hours to do this, but we must also think about the time that will be needed to explain this agreement to our companies,” he said.
“So in the coming days, we will have to decide either to continue to negotiate or go ahead with no deal. Because if this is the case, it is better to know now than at Christmas.
“Within the EU 27 there are different sensitivities – it would be naive to deny it. We will not give in to time pressure. We will not accept an agreement at all costs on the pretext that we are getting closer to the deadline.”
