23 August, 2017
In apparent response to the flurry of position papers being now published by David Davis' Department for Exiting the EU (DexEU), Barnier argued that the EU27 had made its stance clear months ago.
Hopes of kicking off post-Brexit free trade talks between the United Kingdom and the European Union may have been dashed because of the slow progress between Brussels and Britain in the two-year-long divorce negotiations, the prime minister of Slovenia warned on Monday 21 August.
Cerar said: "I think that the process will definitely take more time than we expected at the start of the negotiations".
"But as Michel Barnier has said time and again, we have to have sufficient progress first on the three areas of citizens' rights, financial settlement and Ireland, and only then can we move forwards to discussing the future relationship".
The publications come ahead of the third round of formal Brexit talks in Brussels next week, and are due to be followed in the coming days by papers setting out the UK's position on civil judicial co-operation, enforcement and dispute resolution and data protection.
Downing Street has played down Cerar's comments, with a Number 10 spokeswoman telling reporters the government is confident that it will have made "sufficient progress" by the October deadline. We are working at pace.
"Looking forward to discussing these papers with #UK".
But it will come after a warning from Sir Paul Jenkins, formerly the government's most senior legal official, that the United Kingdom will have to accept the ECJ in all but name if it wants to achieve a Brexit without hard borders.
Barnier, who has not yet confirmed this, last night said it was "essential to make progress" on the first three topics.
DExEU is also expected to publish a paper stating the UK's wish to include services, as well as goods, in the first phase of talks, in a move apparently created to inject pace into the process and take in some aspects of future trade.
Britain has set out proposals to ensure that trade in goods and services can continue with Europe after the point at which the United Kingdom leaves the European Union.
Meanwhile, the Government's new chief trade negotiation adviser, Crawford Falconer, said the trade deals Britain could strike after Brexit would help boost global security.
"History is littered with instances of the destructive political consequences of closed markets".
He added: "Many countries still recognise that open trade policies directed at engaging with others are at the core of any strategy to improve the global prospects for political openness and stability".
"We have already seen that this unnecessary and dogmatic position has prevented a sensible approach to issues such as Euratom and citizens' rights".
"The UK believes that all goods lawfully placed on the market before exit should continue to circulate [between the European Union and the UK] freely, without additional requirements or restrictions", the paper states - but hints that this may be contingent on Brussels droppings its opposition to discussing a post-exit trade deal.
A further document on civil judicial co-operation is created to reassure the domestic legal sector.
"David Davis described the paper as "[Helping] give businesses and consumers certainty and confidence in the UK's status as an economic powerhouse after we have left the EU.
