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Statement given recently (05 June 2020) by Michel Barnier following Round 4 of negotiations for a new partnership between the European Union and the United Kingdom.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am happy to be with you again, virtually, at the end of this fourth round of negotiations.

Since the beginning of these negotiations, our objective has been to move forward – in parallel – on all topics of our future relationship – and there are many given that we are aiming for a very ambitious partnership.

To achieve this, as I told you at the end of our last round, we needed to make progress on four big sticking points, namely:

• Fisheries, and free and fair competition, the so-called ‘level playing field' – two essential elements of the new economic partnership we want to build;
• Guarantees protecting people's fundamental rights and freedoms needed to underpin a close police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters;
• And finally, the governance of our future relationship.

We therefore decided, with David Frost and the UK delegation, to dedicate time to discussing those four points this week.

And I want to thank David Frost personally, but also the two negotiating teams for the mutual respect that they have shown, for the quality of their work in these difficult circumstances, and for their professionalism.

However, at the end of this week, my responsibility – under the authority of President Ursula von der Leyen – as Union negotiator, is to tell you the truth. And the truth is that there was no substantial progress.

• On fisheries, the United Kingdom did not show any real willingness to explore other approaches than zonal attachment on quota sharing. It also continues to condition access to its waters to an annual negotiation – which is technically impossible for us. Whereas the EU wants to build a more stable economic partnership.
• On the level playing field, we didn't make any progress on these rules of economic and commercial fair play, despite choosing to focus this week on issues that should have been more consensual, such as non-regression mechanisms on social and environmental standards, climate change, taxation or sustainable development.
• On the governance of our future relationship, we were unable to make progress on the issue of the single governance framework establishing legal linkages between our different areas of cooperation.
• Finally, on police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters, we had a slightly more constructive discussion on the question of commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights, although important questions remain as to how to reflect this commitment in our agreement.

On all these points, we are asking for nothing more than what is in the Political Declaration.

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