'Narrow Path' to Brexit Trade Deal Visible, Next Few Days Critical

French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire speaks during a news conference on the country's COVID-19 situation at the French Health Ministry in Paris, France November 12, 2020. Ludovic Marin/File Photo
French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire speaks during a news conference on the country's COVID-19 situation at the French Health Ministry in Paris, France November 12, 2020. Ludovic Marin/File Photo
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'Narrow Path' to Brexit Trade Deal Visible, Next Few Days Critical

French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire speaks during a news conference on the country's COVID-19 situation at the French Health Ministry in Paris, France November 12, 2020. Ludovic Marin/File Photo
French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire speaks during a news conference on the country's COVID-19 situation at the French Health Ministry in Paris, France November 12, 2020. Ludovic Marin/File Photo

European Union Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said on Monday that sealing a trade pact with Britain was still possible before the country's final break with the 27-nation bloc on Dec. 31 but the next few days of negotiations would be critical.

A senior EU diplomat who attended a closed-door briefing by Barnier on the state of play in Brussels said the tortuous trade talks could collapse but for now "the patient is still alive".

"There might now be a narrow path to an agreement visible - if negotiators can clear the remaining hurdles in the next few days," another EU diplomat said, adding that success depends on London accepting "inherent trade-offs" for a fair deal.

Despite missing multiple deadlines, Britain and the EU agreed on Sunday to "go the extra mile" to try to break deadlocks on access to UK fishing waters for EU trawlers and corporate fair play rules in order to avert a turbulent split in trading ties at the end of the month.

"It is our responsibility to give the talks every chance of success," Barnier said in a tweet after his meeting with EU national envoys, adding "the next few days are important" if a trade deal is to be in place for Jan. 1.

Going into the meeting, he told reporters that differences over free and fair competition and access to markets and fishing waters still stood in the way of an agreement.

"And it's on these points that we haven't found the right balance with the British. So we keep working," he said.

The estranged allies are racing to seal a new partnership deal to carry on trading freely and govern ties from energy to transport beyond Dec. 31, when Britain leaves the EU's single market and customs union after Brexit.

Senior EU diplomats, who spoke under condition of anonymity after taking part in Barnier's closed-door briefing, said the negotiator relayed some limited progress on how to settle any future trade disputes but was "guarded" on prospects for a deal.

The sides remained at odds over state aid provisions and have moved further apart again on fisheries, with the EU rejecting UK's proposal for a three-year transition period from 2021 on access to British waters, they said.

"Patient still alive...but keep the undertaker on speed dial," said one diplomat on how the talks were going.

Britons voted to leave the world's largest trading bloc in a national referendum in 2016, and pro-Brexit politicians had claimed on several occasions that reaching a deal would be easy.

While gaps have been narrowing after seven months of talks, it was not clear if Britain and the EU would be able to clinch an agreement with less than three weeks left, or face economic damage from a no-deal from Jan.1.

That would harm an estimated trillion dollars worth of annual trade, send shockwaves through markets, snarl borders and sow chaos in supply chains across Europe just as the continent struggles with economic havoc wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"FOLLY"

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Monday Britain has the most to lose from Brexit.

"The British people will be the biggest losers from Brexit," he said, calling Brexit "a political, economic and historical folly".

In London, British business secretary Alok Sharma said the EU and the United Kingdom were still apart but Prime Minister Boris Johnson did not want to walk away yet.

"People expect us, businesses expect us in the UK to go the extra mile and that's precisely what we're doing," he told Sky.

Sharma also said British shoppers worried about a failure to secure a trade deal should not stockpile food and he was confident food supplies would be maintained.

The British Retail Consortium said retailers were doing everything they could to prepare for all eventualities on Jan. 1 - increasing their stocks of tins, toilet rolls, and other longer-life products so there would be sufficient supply of essential products. It also warned of higher prices without a deal.



Libyan Court Jails 12 Officials over Deadly Floods

Abdul Salam Ibrahim Al-Qadi, 43 years old, walks on the rubble in front of his house, searching for his missing father and brother after the deadly floods in Derna, Libya, September 28, 2023. REUTERS/Esam Omran Al-Fetori/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Abdul Salam Ibrahim Al-Qadi, 43 years old, walks on the rubble in front of his house, searching for his missing father and brother after the deadly floods in Derna, Libya, September 28, 2023. REUTERS/Esam Omran Al-Fetori/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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Libyan Court Jails 12 Officials over Deadly Floods

Abdul Salam Ibrahim Al-Qadi, 43 years old, walks on the rubble in front of his house, searching for his missing father and brother after the deadly floods in Derna, Libya, September 28, 2023. REUTERS/Esam Omran Al-Fetori/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Abdul Salam Ibrahim Al-Qadi, 43 years old, walks on the rubble in front of his house, searching for his missing father and brother after the deadly floods in Derna, Libya, September 28, 2023. REUTERS/Esam Omran Al-Fetori/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

A Libyan court has jailed 12 officials in connection with the collapse of a series of dams in Derna last year that killed thousands of the city's residents, the Attorney General said on Sunday.

The officials, who were responsible for managing the country's dams, were sentenced to between 9 and 27 years in prison by the Court of Appeal in Derna. Four officials were acquitted, according to Reuters.

Derna, a coastal city with a population of 125,000, was devastated last September by massive floods caused by Storm Daniel.

Thousands were killed and thousands more were missing as a result of the floods that burst dams, swept away buildings and destroyed entire neighbourhoods.

The Attorney General in Tripoli said three of the defendants were ordered to "return money obtained from illicit gains", according to a statement, which did not give the names or positions of those on trial.

"The convicted officials have been charged with negligence, premeditated murder and waste of public money," a judicial source in Derna told Reuters by phone, adding that they had the right to appeal against the verdicts.

A report in January by the World Bank, United Nations and European Union said deadly flash flooding in Derna constituted a climate and environmental catastrophe that required $1.8 billion to fund reconstruction and recovery.

The report said the dams' collapse was partly due to their design, based on outdated hydrological information, and partly a result of poor maintenance and governance problems during more than a decade of conflict in Libya.