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From: TT
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Photo: John Sibley / AP / TT
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, will travel to Brussels in the next few days to meet with the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
After “pausing” the Brexit talks by phone, word came from Downing Street that Boris Johnson would soon be traveling to Brussels for a “physical meeting” with his opponent Ursula von der Leyen.
Telephone diplomacy to get negotiations on track on future cooperation between the EU and the UK was on Monday’s agenda. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, would deliberate to get the negotiations on the right track on future cooperation between the EU and the UK.
Both Brussels and London were eagerly awaiting another high-level phone call on Monday night.
Conversation pause
The call should have started at 17 and was still not ready after an hour and a half.
“Ursula von der Leyen and Boris Johnson have decided to take a ‘break’ from their phone call,” reported a correspondent for the AFP news agency via Twitter at 6.30pm.
A few hours later the news came from London that Boris Johnson “one of the next days” will travel to Brussels for a “physical meeting” with von der Leyen.
“It doesn’t look good”
Imminent progress is not expected. Rather, sentiment on Monday was somewhat more pessimistic, as EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier was unable to report any major progress when he met with EU ambassadors from member states this morning.
“Time is running out,” a diplomatic source told Reuters later.
There is still disagreement on the three main issues: fisheries, fair competition, and a dispute settlement system.
“It doesn’t look good,” EU Financial Markets Commissioner Mairead McGuinness told Irish broadcaster RTE.
The goal remains to be able to reach an agreement on a comprehensive trade and cooperation agreement that can enter into force on January 1.
According to RTE, Barnier has explained to the Brexit group of the European Parliament that a solution must be reached before Wednesday to reach an agreement.
The summit awaits
On the other hand, the EU has made it clear that it does not want to be the party to leave the talks first. There are no formal obstacles to continuing to negotiate until the turn of the year, when the current transition rules expire.
The European Parliament has already indicated that it is willing to convene an extraordinary meeting on December 28 to approve a possible deal.
The status of the negotiations will be discussed by the EU heads of state and government when they meet for the last summit of the year in Brussels on Thursday and Friday.
In that case, new impulses are also expected on what additional emergency measures are needed if there is no agreement, for example, to at least guarantee the necessary permits for air traffic and truck transport.
Change is promised
In parallel, the lower house of the British Parliament during the week also deals with two bills that the EU has harshly criticized and accused of violating the exit agreements that the EU and the UK agreed to last winter.
From the British side, however, it is promised that the criticized tranches may be withdrawn, depending on what happens in the special steering group for the exit agreement, which also has meetings during the week.
“Decisive decisions are expected in the next few days,” the British government said in a statement.
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