UK, EU leaders agree to keep talking in bid for Brexit deal

London

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen yesterday asked their negotiators to “work intensively” to overcome differences to secure a post-Brexit free trade deal. The two leaders spoke via video-link after the last of nine scheduled rounds of talks between London and Brussels ended Friday with both sides saying significant obstacles to an agreement remained.

The intervention by the pair, who last held Brexit talks in June, is seen as crucial to finding a breakthrough in the stalled negotiations, with time running short to ratify a deal by an end of the year deadline. Britain is due to end nearly five decades of economic and political integration on December 31, and fears are growing of travel and trade chaos if an agreement is not struck.

Johnson’s office said in a statement that both leaders had “agreed to speak on a regular basis on this issue” as their teams try to find compromises for the thorniest issues. “They endorsed the assessment of both chief negotiators that progress had been made in recent weeks but that significant gaps remained,” a Downing Street spokesman said, adding fisheries, so-called level playing field provisions, and governance issues were proving most problematic.

“They instructed their chief negotiators to work intensively in order to try to bridge those gaps.” Britain formally left the European Union in January but has remained bound by most of the bloc’s rules during a transition phase that ends on December 31. Both sides have pinpointed a European summit on October 15 as the latest an agreement could be reached for it to be ratified in time for it to take effect by then. Britain’s head negotiator David Frost promptly said on Twitter: “That work begins as soon as we can next week.”