Boris Johnson presents as a victory the return to negotiations with the EU on the future post-Brexit

Boris Johnson enters his Downing Street residence on Wednesday.TOBY MELVILLE / Reuters

Boris Johnson needed a small victory that would allow him to get out of the labyrinth in which he himself had entered when he concluded - without officially doing so - the negotiations with Brussels for the future relationship after Brexit.

The express recognition of the EU chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, of the necessary “respect for the sovereignty of the United Kingdom” during this process has been the lifeline that Downing Street has clung to in welcoming the European negotiating team back to London and to resume, starting this Thursday and intensively, the attempt to reach a free trade agreement that avoids a hard Brexit.

Nothing has changed but everything can enter a different and more optimistic phase.

The teams that must negotiate a new agreement before the end of the transition period, on December 31, are still stuck in the two most controversial issues: fishing, and the definition of common rules that avoid any unfair competition in the future. by London.

Above all, in terms of public aid to their companies.

The script and the scenery of the umpteenth crisis in this long tragedy have been readjusted to everyone's liking.

Barnier appeared before the European Parliament this Wednesday to formally proclaim the obviousness that London demanded: respect for the EU's autonomy of decision, the integrity of its Internal Market, and the preservation of its long-term economic and political interests, they are "naturally compatible with respect for British sovereignty, a legitimate concern of the Boris Johnson Government."

After the slam of the door by the Prime Minister at the end of last week, the British Government has tightened the rope to the limit of its possibilities.

Johnson announced to his fellow citizens and his businessmen that they were preparing for the new reality of a hard Brexit, in which the United Kingdom would play under the basic rules of the World Trade Organization (that is, tariffs and quotas for companies that work with the continent).

And the British chief negotiator, David Frost, unilaterally canceled the next round of negotiations, which was supposed to take place last Monday in London.

Frost and Barnier kept the phone line open at all times, and their conversation on Wednesday has served to mend the situation.

“We have carefully studied Michel Barnier's statement to the European Parliament this morning.

As the EU's chief negotiator, his words are clothed with authority, ”said a Downing Street spokesman.

Conveniently, the British Government has raised the political stature of the same actor who has sometimes been tried to bypass and who, this very Sunday, was told not to bother taking the plane to London.

"In substance, Barnier has established the principles that the EU has brought to the negotiating table, and has also recognized the red lines marked by the United Kingdom," said that same spokesman.

"There are still relevant discrepancies in areas of great difficulty, but we are ready, together with the European Union, to see if they can be bridged through intensive talks."

The UK also achieves another small triumph by altering the methodology of the negotiations.

Until now, he had demanded that they be carried out on the basis of the respective legal texts.

With the characteristic British pragmatism, he wanted the possible agreement to be built little by little, brick by brick.

Brussels previously required a commitment to fundamental principles, such as shared respect for labor, environmental, consumer protection or public aid to companies.

Both parties have now agreed to “organizational principles for future negotiations” in which the creation of a “joint secretariat” is established that will gradually build “a consolidated master text.” “Officials and lawyers from both parties” will form part of that secretariat. that will be constantly supervised by the respective chief negotiators. It is clear, however, in the last of these seven new rules, that "beyond the progress (...) nothing will be agreed in these negotiations until an agreement has been reached total".

The British Government has insisted at all times, officially, that it did not renounce its will to reach an agreement, although it insisted on its tranquility at the prospect that it was not possible. He maintains that security in his preparation for the worst, and has repeated it this Wednesday: “It is entirely possible that the negotiations will not be successful. If this happens, the UK will end the transition period and will be subject to the same terms as Australia [the Australian solution, Johnson's euphemism for a hard Brexit]. And it will have a prosperous future. " The reality, however, is that Johnson's latest ordeal was not cheered like a year ago by Eurosceptic conservatives, now focused on the damage caused by Covid-19. And it did set off the alarms of the vast majority of British businessmen, who publicly alerted the Government that they were not prepared to face a hard Brexit, nor could they be when no one had yet indicated what the new conditions would be, nor did they consider it appropriate to add uncertainty to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic.