Tweet by Dave Keating, Brussels correspondent for France 24
I’m hearing rumours we may see an emergency “temporary #Brexit deal” agreed this week to avoid #NoDeal happening in midst of #COVID19.
If this is true, it’s important to point out that this will *not* be a “deal”.
It’s essentially an extension. The problem doesn’t go away.
Just something to take note. This could be what all the murmurs and whispers were referring to since the weekend.
It seems like this may allude to an agreement on the supposed 95% of the deal, with any agreement on the remaining 5% i.e. fisheries, governance, level playing field is likely to be postponed/extended pending further negotiations.
That brings us back to what I was referring to earlier in the day here:
Otherwise, we are likely to see the can kicked down the road again and I firmly believe that at the end of the day, both sides will fall back on some technicality to sell a compromise.
A skinny deal excluding the three key outstanding issues (instead postponing them) will allow Boris Johnson to “technically” stick with a Brexit on 1 January 2021 while the EU doesn’t have to move its red lines and be made to look worse off from any deal.