The president of the European commission has said it will be “impossible” for the UK to negotiate a comprehensive deal covering all aspects of Brexit within the timeframe set by Boris Johnson.
Speaking before her first face-to-face bilateral meeting with the prime minister in Downing Street on Wednesday, Ursula von der Leyen said the price of the clean-break Brexit the prime minister is pursuing was a “distant” partnership with the EU.
Unless the UK accepted a level playing field in the UK and EU’s trade positions after Brexit, there would inevitably be barriers for British manufacturing, she said in a speech at the London School of Economics.
At the same event, the EU’s Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, warned in an impromptu exchange that leaving the EU was not a simple process and involved renegotiation of “600 international agreements” as well as the new free trade agreement.
“It is basically impossible to negotiate all,” said Von der Leyen. » | Lisa O'Carroll, Brexit correspondent | Wednesday, January 8, 2020
