Ursula Von Der Leyen, in Brussels on September 22, 2020. -

ISOPIX / SIPA

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, wants to believe it.

According to her, an agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom on Brexit remains "possible" despite their very distant positions at the start of a week of decisive negotiations.

"A call to responsibility"

"We want an agreement," she said Monday in Lisbon, after a meeting with Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa.

"I appeal for responsibility (…) because our economies, on both sides of the Channel, are severely affected by the pandemic and we must do everything to reach a reasonable agreement," said Ursula von der Leyen.

The British reiterated on Monday their desire to modify the terms of the divorce agreement with the EU, at the risk of weighing on a week of negotiations with the Europeans in Brussels.

“The UK's position is very far from what the EU can accept,” said European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic after a meeting with the Minister of State. Briton Michael Gove in the Belgian capital.

“We both made it clear that we were still some distance from each other.

But we have also both been clear that we want to bridge that gap, ”Michael Gove told him, via UK television.

EU furious at British turnaround

At the heart of their discussions, the very controversial bill under consideration in the British Parliament, which calls into question certain commitments made by the United Kingdom in the agreement governing its departure from the EU on January 31.

The text returns to certain provisions for the British province of Northern Ireland, planned to avoid the return of a border with the Republic of Ireland, a safeguard considered essential to the maintenance of peace on the island.

Furious at this turnaround, which, by the British government's own admission, would violate international law, the Europeans gave London until the end of the month, that is to say Wednesday, to withdraw their project, on pain of '' legal action.

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