The UK's Prime Minister said this week’s EU summit in Brussels has made clear the EU is not prepared to offer the kind of Canada-style deal the UK is seeking.
“They want the continued ability to control our destiny and freedom, our fisheries, in a way that is completely unacceptable,” he said.
“Given that this summit appears to explicitly rule out a Canada-style deal, I think that we should ready for January 1 with arrangements that are more like Australia’s.”
Mr Johnson had previously said that if there was no agreement by the time of the two-day summit, which began on Thursday, he would walk away from the negotiating table.
Mr Johnson's announcement came after the summit conclusions agreed on Thursday called on the UK to make the “necessary moves to make an agreement possible”.
The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier said he is ready to travel to London on Monday to continue the negotiations.
🇪🇺-🇬🇧 talks: the EU continues to work for a deal, but not at any price.
As planned, our negotiation team will go to London next week to intensify these negotiations.— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) October 16, 2020
Following Mr Johnson’s statement, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said that visit will still go ahead as planned.
“The EU continues to work for a deal, but not at any price,” she tweeted.
“As planned, our negotiation team will go to London next week to intensify these negotiations.”
Asked if he is now walking away from the negotiating table, Mr Johnson said: “What we are saying to them is, ‘Come here, come to us if there is some fundamental change of approach’.
“Otherwise we are more than happy to talk about the practicalities that I described – social security issues, road haulage and so on.
At #EUCO conclusions on EU-UK relations have been adopted pic.twitter.com/Nr20hA9JcB
— Barend Leyts (@BarendLeyts) October 15, 2020
“But unless there is a fundamental change in approach, we are going to go for the Australia solution.
“And we should do it with great confidence – as I said, high hearts and confidence because we can do it.”
In the run up to the summit, both sides had acknowledged significant differences remained over the issues of future fishing rights and state aid rules.
However few in Brussels believe Mr Johnson will simply walk away from the negotiating table.
