Lydia Spencer-Elliott
BORIS Johnson has told reporters that achieving a trade deal with the EU is looking ‘very very difficult’.
It comes after weeks of EU ambassadors understanding that a deal was close to being finalised.
“We’ll do our level best, but I would just like to say to everybody – be in good cheer, there are great options ahead for our country,” the prime minister told Sky News.
Talks with the EU have remained deadlocked due to disagreements over fishing quotas.
Downing Street confirmed last night that Boris Johnson would be travelling to Brussels in the ‘coming days’ in an attempt to salvage a deal.
Regardless of the scheduled meeting between Johnson and the European Comission president, an EU summit will begin on Thursday to address final disagreements.
The chief negotiator between the UK and the EU, Michel Barnier, has been firm that talks will not continue past Wednesday December 9 and is ‘very downbeat’ and ‘very gloomy’, according to the Irish government.
As the UK’s prime minister took to Twitter to celebrate the first day of the coronavirus vaccine roll out, Belgium’s president seized the opportunity to point out that the jab had been ‘Made in Europe’.
Meanwhile, Fabian Zuleeg, head of the European Policy Centre in Brussels wrote he was optimistic Johnson would ‘get a little on fish’ and ‘swallow everything else’.
