EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier expressed concern that “time passes quickly” as round three of Brexit talks began in Brussels yesterday.
He told Brexit Secretary David Davis the UK needed to “remove the ambiguity” on separation issues before negotiations could shift to transition and the future relationship.
While welcoming the UK Government’s papers, which he said had been read “very carefully”, he insisted: “We need you to take positions on all separation issues.
“This is necessary to make sufficient progress. We must start negotiating seriously.
“We need UK papers that are clear in order to have constructive negotiations and the sooner we remove the ambiguity, the sooner we will be in a position to discuss the future relationship and a transitional period.
“The EU 27 and the European Parliament stand united. They will not accept that separation issues are not addressed properly.”
Mr Barnier added: “To be honest, I’m concerned, time passes quickly.”
Mr Davis said the UK was ready to “roll up our sleeves” to get a deal.
The Tory frontbencher added: “The week ahead is about driving forward the technical discussions across all the issues.
“We want to lock in the points where we agree, unpick the areas where we disagree, and make further progress on the whole range of issues.”
Ahead of the talks, Mr Davis was reportedly frustrated at Mr Barnier’s insistence progress must be made on fixing the UK’s so-called divorce bill before moving on to talks on future trade, believing the series of recent papers produced by his department have shown the two issues to be inextricably linked.