Brexit talks slog past another deadline

EU, U.K. fish for answers with 10 days remaining

BRUSSELS — Problems increased Monday for the attempt to secure a trade deal between the European Union and the United Kingdom before a Brexit transition period ends on New Year’s Day, with the EU legislature insisting the drawn-out negotiations left lawmakers without enough time to approve a deal.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, meanwhile, displayed insouciance over whether an agreement is reached or not, saying Britain would “prosper mightily” even if the talks collapsed overnight. “Not that we don’t want a deal,” Johnson hastened to add during a news conference.

British and EU negotiators were deadlocked over fishing rights with only 10 days to go before a chaotic, costly economic break between both sides is to become official. Barring a late breakthrough, it would impose tariffs on trade between the sides, on top of the customs and other administrative red tape imposed by Britain’s decision to leave the 27-nation bloc.

Hundreds of thousands of jobs are at stake throughout the economies of both sides if no deal is found, but Britain is still insisting its sovereignty trumps concessions

granting EU vessels rights in U.K. waters and the EU is refusing to open its lucrative single market to the U.K. unless it commits to play by EU rules.

“It’s vital that everybody understands that the U.K. has got to be able to control its own laws completely, and also that we are going to be able to control our own fisheries,” Johnson said.

EU legislators were mulling their next moves now that that both sides had ignored a Sunday deadline the European Parliament had set for agreement terms to be worked out in order to have enough time to

assess them before Jan. 1.

“Under a normal procedure, this is no longer possible,” the EU parliament’s chief Brexit official, German lawmaker David Mcallister, said. “We showed our utmost flexibility, but the Sunday evening was the last possible date.”

Now, the EU will have to show legal creativity to stave off a no-deal cliff edge.

Meanwhile, the tiny fisheries sector continued to befuddle the negotiators, while most of the other issues that had long divided both sides now seemed within reach of agreement.

Virginia Mayo The Associated Press A woman jogs down a street Monday in the early morning outside the U.K. ambassador’s residence in Brussels. The United Kingdom and the European Union were continuing on Monday a “last attempt” to clinch a post-brexit trade deal.