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London (AP) - In the struggle for a Brexit trade pact, the EU and Great Britain have set a final deadline.
A decision should be made by Sunday evening at the latest, tweeted EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen after a meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Brussels.
The hoped-for breakthrough at the personal top-level meeting did not materialize: “We got a clear understanding of each other's position.
They stay far apart, »wrote von der Leyen.
British government officials said it was still unclear whether an agreement would be reached.
Prime Minister Johnson wants to leave no stone unturned.
The negotiators and their teams should therefore return to the negotiating table one last time to resolve the remaining points of dispute.
The three issues of conflict - fisheries, fair competition and the question of the enforceability of the agreements - have been the same for months.
Without a contract, tariffs and other trade hurdles threaten from January 1st.
This could lead to long traffic jams on the English side of the English Channel and empty shelves in supermarkets, it is feared.
The economy expects severe upheaval.
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Johnson and von der Leyen had an appointment in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss the remaining points of contention in the negotiations on a trade agreement for the time after the end of the Brexit transition period.
It was the third conversation between the two since EU negotiator Michel Barnier and his British colleague David Frost announced last Friday that their negotiating mandate had reached a dead end.
Time is running out.
This Thursday and Friday, the EU heads of state and government will meet for their last summit of the year.
A contract should be in place by December 31, because then the Brexit transition phase will expire.
Should an agreement be reached, it would have to be ratified in the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers.
As things stand, at least one vote on the trade pact is also expected in the British Parliament.
After all, there had been progress this week: The British government and the EU Commission agreed on the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol from the Brexit Agreement.
This largely removes the greatest concern in the event of a no deal.
The protocol aims to ensure that there is no hard border between the British Northern Ireland and the EU member Republic of Ireland.
In this case, a flare-up of the conflict in the former civil war region was expected.
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London had agreed to delete or change controversial passages in a bill that had caused a lot of resentment in Brussels.
According to London's will, the Single Market Act was supposed to overturn the provisions of the Northern Ireland Protocol and thereby break international law.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201210-99-636341 / 2