Britain will suffer more than the European Union if it quits the bloc with no deal next year, a Brussels chief warned today.
Ursula von der Leyen, who has taken over from Jean-Claude Juncker as European Commission president, also stressed the timetable to reach an agreement was “extremely challenging” after the Government decided to put into law that the UK must leave by the end of December 2020.
“It leaves very little time. If we cannot conclude an agreement by the end of 2020, we will face again a cliff edge. This would clearly harm our interests but it will impact the UK more,” she said.
Ms von der Leyen stressed that the negotiations would be organised “to make the most out of the short period”.
She added: “I hope we will have an unprecedented partnership. This is not the end of something, it is the beginning of new relations.”
Brussels chief negotiator Michel Barnier has previously suggested it would take three years to strike a new free-trade deal.
However, Mr Johnson curtailed such a time frame by including the deadline of the end of next year in the Withdrawal Agreement Bill, which is due to get its second reading on Friday.
Former Tory leader and hard Brexiteer Iain Duncan Smith argued that the move was “bold but clever” on the basis that it would stop Brussels from “meandering around” for months before serious talks, in order to put pressure on Britain.
He claimed: “We have now taken the timetable off them and said to them you cannot now rely on the idea that the UK will wait for you.”
However, investors were spooked by the new deadline, with the pound falling by more than one per cent yesterday and the FTSE 250, which includes many companies more exposed to the UK, also being hit.
Trade expert Sam Lowe, of the Centre for European Reform, believes Mr Johnson will have to make concessions to Brussels to get a deal in a year.
“The lesson of the last few years of negotiation is the EU budges a bit, the UK has to move a lot,” he said.
However, he thinks that the Prime Minister may be able to use the December 2020 deadline to persuade Tory MPs to support his proposed free-trade agreement.
