Thread by @AndrewChapman50

Farage claimed Wednesday that Barnier said the FTA negotiations will continue 3 years beyond end 2020. In fact it was @Nigel_Farage himself in the European Parliament who said they will take 3 years. Barnier, in response, corrected him. Thread:

https://twitter.com/brexitparty_uk/status/1192013071377739778

First, in passing, see that Farage first refers to us 'leaving' the EU at the end of the transition, while claiming it will take longer.

But then he claims that we don't leave the EU at all under the deal:

Now let's see what Barnier had said the previous night. On Tuesday he spoke about Brexit in Lisbon.

First: negotiation difficult since only 11 months given 'currently foreseen' Dec 2020 end date.

Second: decision about possible extension, summer 2020.

This is in accord with what the UK and EU have agreed. They have made a political commitment to complete the negotiations before the end of 2020, so that they can come into force at the end of the year:

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

and have sketched out the process by which this can be achieved:

The Withdrawal Agreement first sets 31 December 2020 as the transition end date:

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

and then makes provision for a single extension of up to two years, which has to be agreed by the end of June 2020:

The UK and EU have made a political commitment to hold a high-level meeting in June 2020 to 'take stock of progress' and agree actions to move the negotiation forward. They do not in fact make any mention of the possibility of an extension in the Political Declaration:

but clearly Barnier is within his rights to raise it, since it is provided for in the Withdrawal Agreement.

Where does Farage derive his claim that Barnier said the negotiation will take not 11 months, but 'a further 3 years' after the end of 2020, that is, ≈4 years altogether?

The Guardian reports @TiceRichard as claiming on 25 November that Barnier had said the transition would last 'at least three years'. It observes that Barnier had in fact said it would take 1-3 years, or more in some areas, to renegotiate and 'rebuild':

theguardian.com/politics/live/…

Barnier's remarks were made on 22 October in the European Parliament. He expressed *surprise* that *Nigel Farage* had said that the negotiation would take three years, and *corrected* him by saying the negotiation and rebuilding process (as he sees it) would take *1-3 years*,

or maybe more 'in some areas'. I think his last point probably refers not to extending the transition beyond three years, but to the possibility of adding further agreements in the future.

europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document…

French original:

What Farage had said to provoke Barnier's surprise was that the new Withdrawal Agreement *guarantees* three more years of negotiations.

Barnier never said this. Farage said it.