EU ready to work with U.K. on legal text to break Brexit impasse

The European Union said explicitly for the first time that it’s ready to start drafting the legal text of a trade deal with the U.K., the bloc’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said following a phone call with his British counterpart.

Barnier told David Frost that his team is ready for further talks in London this week and prepared to start intensifying work for a trade agreement, Barnier said in a Tweet. The call followed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement on Friday that the government will increase preparations for a no-deal outcome and talks should end unless the EU fundamentally changes its approach.

Barnier’s comments could go some way to breaking the impasse because this has been a major bone of contention between the two sides.

The British government argues that the EU has run down the clock and hasn’t negotiated in good faith by refusing to start drafting a text in the seven months since negotiations started. It also has insisted that the bloc should offer further compromises, particularly with regard to its demands to maintain access to U.K. fishing waters.

The EU says that it’s up to the U.K. to offer concessions and it needs the U.K. to give more on the so-called level playing field for business and a mechanism to enforce the deal.

Negotiations were due to resume in London on Monday but were canceled after Johnson’s statement. The EU has said it’s prepared to continue talks at any time.