EU negotiator stresses UK set December 31 deadline by refusing transition extension. The ticking Brexit clock is finally running out, the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said Friday. [ Ссылка ]
"It's the moment of truth," Barnier said in a speech to the European Parliament. "We have very little time remaining — just a few hours to work through these negotiations in a useful fashion if we want this agreement of enter into force on the first of January."
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On Thursday, leaders of the European Parliament set a deadline of Sunday night for Barnier and his team to reach a tentative agreement with the U.K.

Delivering an update on negotiations in the plenary on Friday, Barnier repeated a line from Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, saying: "There is a chance of getting an agreement, but the path to such an agreement is very narrow."

In a real sign that talks could end without a deal, Barnier stressed it was U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson who set the December 31 cliff edge, by refusing to request an extension to the transition period that Barnier said the EU27 were prepared to grant.

"It is the Brits who decided on a very short deadline within which we are now constrained," Barnier said. "In June, they refused any form of extension of the transition, which was possible, which was on the table, we had agreed to that. But they established the date of the 31st of December as that moment of truth."

Johnson spoke by telephone with von der Leyen on Thursday evening and issued a statement afterward insisting that a deal could be reached only if the EU concedes ground. A U.K. read-out of the call said Johnson had underlined that "it now looked very likely that agreement would not be reached unless the EU position changed substantially."

Barnier, in his speech to Parliament, did not indicate that any such shift was forthcoming, and he stressed again that serious differences remain on the so-called level playing field, and on the EU's future access to U.K. fishing waters.

Barnier said the EU was offering the U.K. the best trade deal ever developed with a non-EU country.

"We'd like to have an ambitious free trade agreement that is unique, a form that we have never offered to any third country before," he said. "Zero tariffs, zero quota access with the rules that I mentioned on level playing field — connectivity, for example, for both road and air transport and energy, or cooperation when it comes to social security."

But Barnier said that the EU was prepared for a no-deal scenario and would not seek an agreement at any cost. "What is more important than just the relationship between the U.K. and the European Union is the European project, which is called into question here," he said.

It provides for a transition period until 31 December 2020 that is intended to give citizens, businesses and public administrations sufficient time to prepare for the end of the transition. At the same time, this period is to be used by the EU and the UK to conclude negotiations on the EU-UK future relationship. Here is a summary of the most important information:

What has happened since 1 February 2020?
A Withdrawal Agreement was negotiated prior to withdrawal in order to ensure that the main political and economic links between the EU and the UK were not severed from one day to the next upon departure. This Agreement has been in force since 1 February 2020, the day the UK left the EU. It provides for a transition period until 31 December 2020, during which EU law continues to apply to the UK and the UK remains a part of the EU single market as well as the EU customs union. The EU and the UK are negotiating their future relationship during this transition period. The Political Declaration on the future relationship agreed to by both sides flanks the Withdrawal Agreement and sets out the framework for negotiations.

What happens at the end of the transition period? Which preparations are necessary?
The transition period stipulated in the Withdrawal Agreement ends on 31 December 2020. It is no longer possible to extend this period. This would have required a joint decision on an extension to have been taken by 1 July 2020. The UK let this deadline pass.

As of 1 January 2021, the UK will thus no longer be part of the single market or the customs union. Even if an agreement on the future relationship is concluded by the year’s end, the EU’s relationship with the UK will fundamentally change, and it will be very different from when the UK was a member of the single market.

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