EU Making Threats and Demands

by Louise Mclean

Anyone who thought that after officially leaving the Bloc on 31st January, all would be done and dusted, is going to find this is very far from the case.  A trade deal with the EU was never going to be easy.  Officials in Brussels had been used to Theresa May agreeing their negotiating terms and simply have not been able to accept that Boris Johnson's new government is no longer prepared to cow tow to them as before.

Starting with a demand for £1 billion on the day we left on 31st January, the threats and demands have been coming thick and fast ever since.

Initially the EU has been demanding continued access to our territorial fishing waters in exchange for a trade deal.  We have had more than enough of large EU trawlers hoovering up our coastlines and destroying it!  The quotas are in their favour and we are hardly allowed to catch any of our own fish!

In addition, the EU want the UK to stay in the Customs Union and Single Market in order to trade with the European Union.  Compliance with this and all other EU laws and directives is currently what is meant by 'a level regulatory playing field'. They want continued freedom of movement and any disputes to continue to be adjudicated by the European Court of Justice.

The Johnson government's chief Brexit negotiator, David Frost, made it clear in a speech recently that leaving the EU meant we would be making our own laws and the ECJ would no longer have jurisdiction over us. Boris Johnson also stated that in many cases our laws are superior to those in the EU, for example in the workplace and environment.

Michel Barnier and others have also insisted that the 31st December 2020 deadline would not be long enough for a trade deal to be finalised, suggesting we would have to push forward the date of the transition. Of course this is just another delaying tactic and attempt to stop us fully leaving.

The latest demand is that in return for a trade deal, we must return the Elgin Marbles to Greece, which are currently in the British Museum.

Yesterday Boris Johnson produced a document from 2017 showing that the EU stated only a Canada style trade deal would be available to us, which is precisely what Boris is asking for,  but Michel Barnier is now saying that an EU-Canada style trade deal is no longer on offer!

The truth of the matter is that with Britain leaving, the EU is going to have a big hole in its budget and will have to ask other member states to pay more, many of which are not happy to do so.  The other thing that bothers Brussels is the idea of Britain becoming highly competitive, making a great success of trading around the world and tempting others to leave the Bloc and follow suit.

What is totally obvious is the EU does not really want us to fully leave and is doing everything in its power to hold on to us.  It looks as though there will be an almighty fight ahead that will require Boris Johnson and David Frost to be unequivocal and not back down one inch.

The fact is that we buy far more from the EU than what we sell to them.  The trade deficit in 2019 was £130 billion.  Therefore they need us far more than we need them because we can easily buy goods elsewhere, which is probably what will happen, since EU goods are anyway overpriced.

The truth is that the UK is the fifth or sixth biggest economy in the world and the second most powerful country and we will be much more successful and prosperous without the dead hand of EU regulations holding us back!