Meanwhile, away from the pandemic, talks
between the UK and the EU stutter along with the UK continuing to demand the
special and exceptional treatment to which its government feels it is entitled.
According to reports
from Germany, the UK is seeking not only to maintain its current access to Europol
databases, but to do so without signing up to the EU’s rules on data protection
(which the UK has, apparently, already breached anyway by illicitly sharing
data with the US), and with an extra request thrown in that the EU should
extend its databases to include additional information which the UK considers
might be useful to it. No doubt any failure to agree here will all be the fault
of those obstinate Europeans with their inability to understand just how
special the UK is.
Interestingly, a German government report
on the UK’s position in the Brexit talks says that, in relation to Europol,
Britain wants to “approximate the position of a member state as closely as
possible”. I suspect that there are many other areas in which sensible
negotiators will seek to do likewise but are equally likely to be rebuffed. Of
course, some of us can see one very straightforward way in which the UK could “approximate
the position of a member state as closely as possible”. I won’t hold my
breath waiting for the government to spot it.
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