Lydia Spencer-Elliott
BORIS Johnson’s vital dinner with destiny, and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, last night has ended without a Brexit deal.
Seemingly, the one thing the two sides can agree on is that things are not going well.
Von der Leyen admitted the UK and the EU were still ‘far apart’, while Downing Street agreed ‘very large gaps remain’ in negotiations.
Talks have now been extended until Sunday, despite EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier previously stating there would be no further discussion after Wednesday December 10.
The politician is said to be ‘very downbeat’ and ‘very gloomy’, according to the Irish government.
According to a No 10 spokesperson, Johnson and von der Leyen ‘agreed that by Sunday a firm decision should be taken about the future of the talks’.
It comes after Britain’s Prime Minister claimed that reaching a trade deal with the EU was looking ‘very very difficult’ earlier this week.
“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,” Boris Johnson said.
Talks with the EU have remained in deadlock for days thanks to disagreement over fishing quotas.
While it comprises just 0.1% of the UK economy, the fishing disagreement could spell a hit of up to 3% for the economy and up to the same for Spain, the biggest predicted victim in Europe.
As Johnson took to Twitter to celebrate the first day of the coronavirus vaccine roll out on Tuesday December 8 , Belgium’s president jibed 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’.
