The EU should not be afraid of a no-deal in December 2020, the chair of EU Parliament’s Environment committee Pascal Canfin (French MEP, Renew Europe) told reporters this week. He warned current discussions did not start on a good path, with UK asking for full single market access and divergence at the same time. He gives the example of the EU’s Emission Trading Scheme as a possibly thorny issue. As UK plans to set its own carbon market, he cites the carbon adjustment mechanism (a tool EU started designing), as a way to protect EU business in case the UK does not respect a level playing field on carbon prices.
Pascal Canfin and the Environment committee will advise negotiators on environment-related issues during talks.