Brussels (Reuters) – The EU Commission proposes time-limited measures to avoid disruptions in air and road freight traffic between the international community and Great Britain should the Brexit negotiations fail.
The initiative presented by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday provides, among other things, that certain flight connections will be maintained until mid-2021 and that flight safety regulations will be taken into account in order to prevent aircraft from having to remain on the ground. Precautions should also be taken with a view to road freight and passenger traffic. It is also suggested that an “appropriate legal framework” should be created to allow fishermen from the EU and Great Britain to access the respective waters after December 31st.
It is important to be prepared for all eventualities, explained von der Leyen. She pointed out that even if an agreement were to be reached, it was not certain that it could come into force in time for the turn of the year. The EU and Great Britain have set a deadline for solving the Brexit dispute by Sunday. Without a contract including a trade agreement by the end of the year, there is a risk of a hard break at the beginning of 2021 with upheavals for the economy on both sides of the English Channel. Great Britain had already left the EU at the end of January. On December 31st, however, the transition phase, in which Great Britain still has to apply EU rules, ends. Without a follow-up agreement, tariffs would come into effect and Great Britain would then no longer have access to the EU internal market.
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