ANGELA MERKEL is preparing to broker peace talks with Britain in the event of a dramatic collapse of the post-Brexit trade negotiations this summer.
The influential capitals believe initial progress will be extremely slow, prompting “a lot of drama” later in the year.
“We will be lucky to get a bare-bones free-trade agreement by the end of the year. It will be extremely difficult,” they added.
Ms Merkel would use Germany’s presidency of the EU to get negotiations back on track at a potential emergency summit.A second diplomat predicted an “October reckoning” where London and Brussels would decide to prioritise areas that could be fast-tracked by the end of the year.
Even before formal negotiations have gotten underway, tensions between the UK and EU are at boiling point.
Michel Barnier hit out at Boris Johnson by insisting the EU would "stick to all our prior commitments" in the Political Declaration.
Writing on Twitter, he said: “We take note of the UK’s mandate published today and will discuss our respective positions on Monday.
“We will stick to all our prior commitments in the Political Declaration.
“We want an ambitious and fair partnership with the UK in the future.”
It is understood the EU negotiator wanted to target claims from Downing Street that the bloc would renege on its pledge to make early decisions on financial services and data.
EU sources have said the Frenchman has been infuriated by a recent Twitter spat in which No.10’s official account used him of rowing back on promises.
The European Commission vowed to “keep our eye on the ball” while preparing the bloc for the possibility of a no-deal scenario at the end of the year.
A spokeswoman said: “The Commission retains its capacity to prepare for a no deal following the result of those negotiations.
“We will continue to inform people as well as businesses what preparedness measures would be ready in the event of no deal.”
In a 30-page document, the Government said it would walk away from talks with Brussels if the EU continues to demand a “level-playing field” on rules and regulations.
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Entitled: “The Future Relationship With The EU”, the paper insisted the broad outline of the future UK-EU relationship must be “capable of being rapidly finalised by September” with a serious assessment of progress to be made in June.
It added: “If that does not seem to be the case at the June meeting, the Government will need to decide whether the UK’s attention should move from negotiations and focus solely on continuing domestic preparations to exit the transition period in an orderly time table.”
