With time very short for the end of the transition period, it now looks very likely that a deal between the UK and the EU would not be reached unless the EU changes its position substantially, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week. The transition period will end on December 31, 2020.
During his call about the state of play in the UK-EU negotiations, Johnson underlined that the negotiations were now in a serious situation. "Time was very short and it now looked very likely that agreement would not be reached unless the EU position changed substantially," he said.
"We were making every effort to accommodate reasonable EU requests on the level playing field, but even though the gap had narrowed some fundamental areas remained difficult," Johnson said, according to a statement from the Prime Minister's Office.
The Prime Minister repeated that little time was left. He said that, if no agreement could be reached, the UK and the EU would part as friends, with the UK trading with the EU on Australian-style terms.
The leaders, however, agreed to remain in close contact.
Fibre2Fashion News Desk (RKS)
With time very short for the end of the transition period, it now looks very likely that a deal between the UK and the EU would not be reached unless the EU changes its position substantially, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week. The transition period will end on December 31, 2020.