Britain’s Brexit negotiators believe Angela Merkel will help to broker a deal by September

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BRITISH negotiators believe Angela Merkel is set to switch her attention to Brexit and can help broker a deal in September. 

The German chancellor and other EU leaders will have more time to focus on the talks now they’ve ended their internal budget bunfight. 

UK negotiators believe Angela Merkel and other EU leaders can now focus on Brexit talks

No10 hopes capitals will provide Michel Barnier with some meaningful guidance on a way forward to smash the deadlock.

EU chiefs have been distracted by a long scrap over how to bankroll the continent’s coronavirus recovery which was finally resolved this week.

Germany holds the rotating presidency of the bloc meaning Berlin will play an agenda setting role over the next few months. 

The new hope comes after negotiators on both sides said there was progress in this week’s talks, though still no major breakthrough. A top UK official close to the talks said: “We hope Member States will become more engaged and be able to move it forwards politically.

“Although the gaps in the difficult areas are extremely deep philosophically, they’re probably less wide than they were a month ago. A lot of progress is being made on the mainstream components of the trade agreement. That puts us in a good position for moving forward in September.”

But British negotiators have also voiced frustration over Brussels‘ lack of imagination and ambition on market access. 

They say eurocrats’ unwillingness to push the margins means the trade deal won’t be as cutting edge as it should be. Mr Barnier gave a “sobering assessment” of the state of the talks to EU ambassadors. 

He told them negotiations must be wrapped up by the start of October and whatever happens the end result will be a “low quality deal”. 

A German spokesman said: “The EU27 remain ready to move negotiations quickly forward and expressed the need for more realism in London. They also expressed the need for speed in order to make parallel progress on all areas of negotiation.”

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