European Union leaders are expected to tell UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson that London will have to make significant concessions for both sides to come to a wide-ranging free trade agreement by the end of the year, when the current Brexit transition period ends, according to a draft statement from Brussels seen by The Guardian newspaper on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th October, 2020) European Union leaders are expected to tell UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson that London will have to make significant concessions for both sides to come to a wide-ranging free trade agreement by the end of the year, when the current Brexit transition period ends, according to a draft statement from Brussels seen by The Guardian newspaper on Thursday.
The European Council is currently holding a summit in Brussels and the ongoing negotiations with the UK are expected to be at the top of the agenda. In the draft statement, EU leaders are demanding that the UK "make the necessary moves" in order for progress to be made, as quoted by the newspaper.
Johnson's government drew the ire of the European Union by publishing the Internal Market Bill in September, which looks to alter certain state aid and customs regulations in Northern Ireland that were agreed in the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.
"As regards the internal market bill tabled by the UK government, the European council recalls that the withdrawal agreement and its protocols must be fully and timely implemented," the draft EU statement read, as quoted by the newspaper.
Johnson said back in September that the UK and the EU have until October 15 to conclude their free trade deal or face the prospect of a no-deal Brexit, which will see World Trade Organization rules apply.
Speaking after the EU's General Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg on Wednesday, Simon Coveney, Ireland's deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, said that London and Brussels still have several weeks, not days, to reach a deal.
