I was sent to Brussels to report on the Brexit talks – and got there just in time

Hours after I arrived on Wednesday, the Belgian government declared London a ‘red zone’. Things then got stranger still, writes Jon Stone

Emmanuel Macron speaks to the press as he arrives prior to an EU summit in Brussels this week (Pool/AFP/Getty)

Despite a second wave of Covid-19 breaking across Europe, EU leaders decided to meet in person in Brussels on Thursday to discuss Brexit. After months of video conferences, they argued that it was just too difficult to get real diplomacy done over the phone.

It was for similar reasons that The Independent decided it was worth me coming out here to cover the events. Yes, the main press conferences and speeches are livestreamed, and you can WhatsApp your contacts to ask them what’s going on from anywhere in the world. But it’s hard to get a real feel for an event and properly focus on a story from behind a desk in London.

So that’s why I am here in Brussels to cover the meeting.

I was well aware that I'd have to self-isolate on the way back: Belgium is not on the UK’s travel corridor list. But with the UK probably on the verge of another lockdown anyway, this might not make much difference.  

As it turns out I was lucky: hours after I arrived on Wednesday, the Belgian government declared London a “red zone”, which meant that anyone arriving would have to quarantine. If I had come on a later train, I would have had to spend my time in Brussels self-isolating. A bullet had been dodged: journalists may be classified as key workers, but there is no exemption on overseas travel.

Cafes and bars are closed here, but places that serve food are open – useful, as their outdoor terraces make for reasonably Covid-secure meeting places for contacts and sources. This has been especially welcome because the summit corridors, normally the place to run into diplomats and officials who can tell you what’s going on, are now off-limits to journalists for epidemiological reasons.  

This isn’t a normal summit, and journalists here are getting nowhere near the kind of access to proceedings they would normally get. But despite reasonable grumbles from some hacks, it’s definitely been worth my time coming out here to cover it first hand.  

Yours,

Jon Stone

Policy correspondent