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- Negotiations between Brussels and London on the UK’s exit from the European Union drag on.
- Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the President of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, did not reach an agreement at a joint dinner.
- Both parties named Sunday as the new deadline.
The tremendous game about the Brexit trade pact continues: not even a personal conversation between Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen brought decisive success. The two negotiated for three hours over a dinner in Brussels.
It was their third conversation since EU negotiator Michel Barnier and his British colleague David Frost announced last Friday that their negotiating mandate had reached a dead end.
Still big differences
After two phone calls between Johnson and von der Leyen failed to achieve the desired success, the personal meeting was supposed to give a boost to the negotiations.
But the differences are still very large, as British government circles said after dinner. There are disagreements on fishing rights, competition issues and the dispute settlement mechanism.
The talks should continue in the coming days anyway, because time is of the essence: on Thursday and Friday, the EU heads of state and government will meet for the last summit of the year.
Both sides also named Sunday as the new deadline for deciding on the business relationship after Brexit.
The contract must be in effect before New Year’s Eve
The contract must be in force before December 31st. Then the transition phase of Brexit will expire.
Without a contract, tariffs and other trade barriers have threatened since January 1. It is feared that this could lead to long traffic jams on the English side of the English Channel and empty shelves in supermarkets. The economy expects great turmoil.