‘Substantial progress’ in Brexit talks but gaps still remain
THE UK and European Union have made “substantial progress” in reaching a post-brexit trade deal, but “big differences remain”.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement following a call with Boris Johnson that bridging the outstanding issues will be “very challenging”.
Negotiations will continue today, she confirmed, but time is running out with just a fortnight until the end of the transition period.
After the 7pm call, Mrs von der Leyen said: “We welcomed substantial progress on many issues.
“However, big differences remain to be bridged, in particular on fisheries. Bridging them will be very challenging. Negotiations will continue tomorrow.”
Mr Johnson told her that it looked “very likely” a deal would not be agreed unless the EU position changed “substantially”.
He urged the bloc to move on fisheries and said some “fundamental areas” remained difficult despite a narrowing of the gap on the “level playing field”. A Downing Street spokeswoman said: “The Prime Minister underlined that the negotiations were now in a serious situation.
“Time was very short and it now looked very likely that agreement would not be reached unless the EU position changed substantially.
“He said that we were making every effort to accommodate reasonable EU requests on the level playing field, but even though the gap had narrowed some fundamental areas remained difficult.
“On fisheries, he stressed that the UK could not accept a situation where it was the only sovereign country in the world not to be able to control access to its own waters for an extended period and to be faced with fisheries quotas which hugely disadvantaged its own industry.
“The EU’S position in this area was simply not reasonable and if there was to be an agreement it needed to shift significantly.
“The Prime Minister repeated that little time was left. He said that, if no agreement could be reached, the UK and the EU would part as friends, with the UK trading with the EU on Australian-style terms. The leaders agreed to remain in close contact.”
Chief negotiators Lord Frost and Michel Barnier have been holding discussions in Brussels all week aimed at breaking the deadlock on key issues which have plagued the talks for months.