Germany’s Europe Minister Michael Roth urged Britain on Tuesday to drop plans for a bill that would break the country’s obligations to the European Union under its withdrawal treaty as time was running out to clinch an EU-Britain trade deal.
Speaking to reporters ahead of a meeting of EU ministers in Brussels aimed at preparing a summit of EU leaders later this week, Roth said he was “extremely worried” by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s proposal of new domestic laws that would undercut the Brexit divorce international treaty.
“Please, dear friends in London, stop the games, time is running out, what we really need is a fair basis for further negotiations and we are ready for that,” Roth said.
Roth said the EU was “really, really disappointed” about the results of the trade negotiations, which have become stuck on the issue of EU fishermen’s access to British waters, fair competition between EU and British companies and a mechanism to resolve disputes in the future.
Earlier, EU Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic said a new meeting of the EU-UK joint committee meeting would be held on Sept. 28 in Brussels.
The Joint Committee is a body in which Britain and the EU discuss how to implement their Brexit divorce deal.
