An effort to breathe life into the deadlocked post-Brexit trade talks has come with the announcement that Boris Johnson is to hold talks with Ursula von der Leyen next week. Both sides have also agreed to step up negotiations throughout July.
The intervention to involve the British prime minister and the European Commission president comes after several rounds of talks on trade and the future UK-EU relationship had made next to no progress in recent weeks.
Current arrangements, which preserve much of the UK-EU relationship from before the British departure in January, will come to an end when the post-Brexit transition period expires on December 31.
The deadline for a decision on whether to extend this period runs out at the end of June, but the UK has repeatedly ruled out a prolongation.
The UK’s chief negotiator David Frost retweeted a statement from the prime minister’s office, adding that he was “very pleased” that Johnson, von der Leyen and the presidents of the European Council and European Parliament were to meet on Monday, by video link because of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a separate tweet, Frost reiterated the British stance opposing an extension to the transition period, by republishing a statement to that effect from April.
Many politicians and business leaders in the UK and Europe have called for the negotiations to be prolonged, especially in the light of the pandemic which has dominated attention on all sides.
The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, regretting the deadlocked state of talks, has repeatedly accused the UK of failing to respect commitments made in the divorce deal.
The EU insists that the UK must respect the “level playing field” in future competition and that an agreement on fishing must form part of an overall deal. The UK dissents on the EU’s interpretation and insists on sovereignty and freedom to determine its own rules.
Rejecting accusations that the EU is being intransigent, Barnier said this week that his mandate from the EU27 countries was “sufficiently flexible to find compromises” with the UK.