Brexit negotiations: a decision should be made before Sunday

The Brexit game continues: British Prime Minister Johnson and EU Commission President von der Leyen were unable to overcome their differences even at a joint dinner. Now a decision should be made before Sunday.

Even a high-level meeting between EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was not a major breakthrough on the road to a post-Brexit trade pact. Negotiations should continue through Sunday, but there are still big differences between the two sides, Johnson’s office said after the two had dinner in Brussels.

The British and the EU have been demanding concessions for weeks to determine how trade with Britain should look from 2021. The country left the EU on January 31 after 47 years of membership, but will remain part of the domestic market. tax free until the end of the year.

Three areas are particularly controversial

Without a free trade agreement, there will be tariffs and other trade barriers between Britain and the EU from January. Recently, three areas have been particularly controversial: fishing rights, fair competition rules, and future dispute resolution.

With the multi-course menu in the evening, turbot was served in line with the dispute over EU fishermen’s access to British waters. Johnson said before meeting von der Leyen in the UK House of Commons that a good deal was still possible. But the EU’s demand that Britain continue to meet its standards or that countermeasures be expected are “conditions that no prime minister of this country should accept.”

Chancellor Angela Merkel, on the other hand, emphasized that the EU will not compromise its basic principles. If the British side imposed conditions that the EU could not accept, a path would be taken without an agreement.