The European Union and the United Kingdom made "some movement" in Brexit talks in recent days, although the sides are still far from bridging their disagreements on crucial issues, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th November, 2020) The European Union and the United Kingdom made "some movement" in Brexit talks in recent days, although the sides are still far from bridging their disagreements on crucial issues, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday.
"Nothing is agreed till everything is agreed ... But, indeed, after difficult weeks with very very slow progress, now we have seen in the last days better progress, more movement on important files. This is good. We still have of course the three main difficult issues - the governance, the fisheries and the level-playing field," von der Leyen said during a press conference, specifying that Brussels and London had made progress in the level-playing field dispute.
Moreover, von der Leyen mentioned that the sides still have "a lot of work to do" while the time pressure is high. She also confirmed that direct Brexit negotiations are currently suspended after one of the members of the European team had tested positive for COVID-19.
The UK left the EU on January 31, but as part of the withdrawal agreement, both sides entered an 11-month transition period to negotiate their future commercial relations. If no post-Brexit trade deal is secured before the year's end, the World Trade Organization's rules will come into effect starting in 2021, including customs tariffs and full border checks for UK goods going across the English Channel.
