EU may need to extend deadline for trade talks with UK: von der Leyen

 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivers a speech during a debate at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, December 18, 2019. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler

 

PARIS (Reuters) - The European Union may need to extend the deadline for talks about a new trade relationship with Britain, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told French daily Les Echos in an interview published on Friday.

 

Von der Leyen said both sides needed to seriously think about whether there is enough time to negotiate a new trade deal and work out agreements about a series of other issues.

 

“It would be reasonable to evaluate the situation mid-year and then, if necessary, agree on extending the transition period,” she told the paper.

 

Britain has set a hard deadline of December 2020 for reaching a new trade deal with the EU, betting that the prospect of another Brexit cliff-edge would force Brussels to move quickly to seal an accord.

 

But von der Leyen said earlier this month that this timeframe is “extremely short” to discuss not only trade issues but also education, transport, fisheries and other issues.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-12-27

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Told you so...

 

Boris promised the impossible.

30 minutes ago, Basil B said:

Told you so...

 

Boris promised the impossible.

Didn't you also say that Boris will be the shortest reigning PM as well, just asking?????

 

The last thing we need right now is an unelected leader in Brussels telling our elected PM in the UK what to do. We both have the same deadline to work to now, time to stop messing about a get on with it instead of making excuses before we even start talking. 

 

It'll give the rejoiners something to moan about from 01 Feb.

No....law is set... No more extensions..sorry darling you really need to keep up

1 hour ago, snoop1130 said:

The European Union may need to extend

But Boris may not need to.

He does not want to, and does not have to. Time for the EU to face up to it: Boris now has the upper hand.  

1 minute ago, Loiner said:

Time for the EU to face up to it: Boris now has the upper hand.

… for a No-Deal?  Yes he has, but nothing new here.

Luckily most people in EU and UK don't want this No-Deal.

Decision will be in 6 months. Campaign promises will be forgotten. No surprise if an extension is asked then.

4 minutes ago, Pattaya46 said:

Luckily most people in EU and UK don't want this No-Deal.

But Johnson and his backers do.

34 minutes ago, Pattaya46 said:

… for a No-Deal?  Yes he has, but nothing new here.

Luckily most people in EU and UK don't want this No-Deal.

Decision will be in 6 months. Campaign promises will be forgotten. No surprise if an extension is asked then.

Luckily, we don't care what most people in the EU want. That's why we are leaving. If they want a deal now, they had better get their negotiating teams up to speed and in a concessionary mood.

Most people in the UK? Well that is probably not the case, and it was a pretty decisive decision a couple of weeks ago. Boris's slogan wasn't "Let's get a deal done."

She’s just being realistic and reasonable. The average trade deal takes years to negotiate and the Brits don’t even know what type of trade deal they want.

 

But alas, Fred down the pub said out is out, and he knows better than those unelected bureaucrats at the coal face who have to sound out industry, develop negotiating positions and balance a huge range of competing positions and stakeholders. 

 

So Fred, in his bar stool wisdom is willing to throw lots of jobs and industry under the bus for a slogan - ‘Get it done’ he says! 

25 minutes ago, samran said:

She’s just being realistic and reasonable. The average trade deal takes years to negotiate and the Brits don’t even know what type of trade deal they want.

 

But alas, Fred down the pub said out is out, and he knows better than those unelected bureaucrats at the coal face who have to sound out industry, develop negotiating positions and balance a huge range of competing positions and stakeholders. 

 

So Fred, in his bar stool wisdom is willing to throw lots of jobs and industry under the bus for a slogan - ‘Get it done’ he says! 

Quit this scaremongering! No trade deal has ever been negotiated from a position of parity which is where both parties will start from & 'no deal' is a legal reality once the sand runs out this time whether they (the losers) like it or not.

1 hour ago, DannyCarlton said:

But Johnson and his backers do.

Indeed.

 

Your remainer parliament was kicked out by the people and as you kept reminding us, “parliament is sovereign” so dry those eyes and suck it up.

 

Obviously this unelected Eurocrat wants to keep us in as long as possible but it’s not happening. Ursula can do one.

9 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

Indeed.

 

Your remainer parliament was kicked out by the people and as you kept reminding us, “parliament is sovereign” so dry those eyes and suck it up.

 

Obviously this unelected Eurocrat wants to keep us in as long as possible but it’s not happening. Ursula can do one.

I'm glad that you're happy to sit back and watch the British economy being destroyed.

3 minutes ago, DannyCarlton said:

I'm glad that you're happy to sit back and watch the British economy being destroyed.

Isnt the Uk economy doing quite well theses days ?

2 minutes ago, sanemax said:

Isnt the Uk economy doing quite well theses days ?

Nope.

49 minutes ago, samran said:

She’s just being realistic and reasonable. The average trade deal takes years to negotiate and the Brits don’t even know what type of trade deal they want.

 

But alas, Fred down the pub said out is out, and he knows better than those unelected bureaucrats at the coal face who have to sound out industry, develop negotiating positions and balance a huge range of competing positions and stakeholders. 

 

So Fred, in his bar stool wisdom is willing to throw lots of jobs and industry under the bus for a slogan - ‘Get it done’ he says! 

We can still trade with the E.U under WTO rules and regulations , and then negotiate any separate deals between the UK and EU

1 minute ago, sanemax said:

We can still trade with the E.U under WTO rules and regulations , and then negotiate any separate deals between the UK and EU

Good luck with that.

1 minute ago, DannyCarlton said:

Nope.

The 800 000 job loses , all financial institutions relocating to Frankfurt , # |The Pound plummeting , millions of unemployed......................didnt actually happen .---------------------------------------------------------  

  The UK is doing quite well , considering the rest of Europe is having a downturn 

 

18 minutes ago, DannyCarlton said:

I'm glad that you're happy to sit back and watch the British economy being destroyed.

you're the biggest snowflake on here

 

accept the will of the people, marxism doesn't work

26 minutes ago, sanemax said:

We can still trade with the E.U under WTO rules and regulations , and then negotiate any separate deals between the UK and EU

I guess you haven’t read that the WTO is a lame duck after there not being judges being appointed to the adjudicate trade disputes. I’ll let you do some research as to who’s doing the blocking (hint: he’s orange and he wants to do a huge wonderful trade deal with you).

 

The upshot of that is that the rules based framework around which trade is done has been thrown out the window. So, as someone else said, good luck with that.

18 minutes ago, cyril sneer said:

you're the biggest snowflake on here

 

accept the will of the people, marxism doesn't work

I have accepted "the will of the people". All I can do now is to sit back and watch the British economy burn and Johnson's backers rake in the millions.

4 minutes ago, DannyCarlton said:

I have accepted "the will of the people". All I can do now is to sit back and watch the British economy burn and Johnson's backers rake in the millions.

Not a problem if stricter immigration policies are enforced 

11 minutes ago, samran said:

I guess you haven’t read that the WTO is a lame duck after there not being judges being appointed to the adjudicate trade disputes. I’ll let you do some research as to who’s doing the blocking (hint: he’s orange and he wants to do a huge wonderful trade deal with you).

 

The upshot of that is that the rules based framework around which trade is done has been thrown out the window. So, as someone else said, good luck with that.

Trump is blocking a trade deal between the UK and the EU because he wasnt the USA to have a

trade deals with the Uk ?

  Do you have a link to that World news story ?

11 minutes ago, DannyCarlton said:

I have accepted "the will of the people". All I can do now is to sit back and watch the British economy burn and Johnson's backers rake in the millions.

Who are those backers of Johnson and how will they rake in millions ?

2 minutes ago, sanemax said:

Trump is blocking a trade deal between the UK and the EU because he wasnt the USA to have a

trade deals with the Uk ?

  Do you have a link to that World news story ?

Gawd, that isn’t what I wrote.

 

you parroted the Brexiter playbook line ‘so well just trade with WTO rules then’

 

to which I replied ‘good luck doing that as the WTO is a toothless organisation given the judges not being appointed’.

 

I know you aren’t thick so you can look that up and why it is happening. 

2 hours ago, sanemax said:

Isnt the Uk economy doing quite well theses days ?

Yes it is, same as many previous years, and because it's still in EU and Common Market ! We will have to wait probably until end of next year to really start to see bad effects of the Brexit...

1 hour ago, Pattaya46 said:

Yes it is, same as many previous years, and because it's still in EU and Common Market ! We will have to wait probably until end of next year to really start to see bad effects of the Brexit...

wHAT WILL THOSE |BAD EFFECTS" BE ?

7 hours ago, DannyCarlton said:

I have accepted "the will of the people". All I can do now is to sit back and watch the British economy burn and Johnson's backers rake in the millions.

With the extra investment  in the NHS and various others on track, its hard to see why UK is going burn. I'm not a lover of Tories or Johnson but the future seems bright, especially after the past three years of twaddle.

But this is the remainers energy. They feed of doom and gloom and for over 4 years have sucked it up like sponges. Some have finally realised that all that tripe that the UK would run out of food, medicine, have no jobs and become a third world country has shown it was all nonsense.

 

Obviously there are some on here who must still get their energy feed from the BBC Daily Mirror or Guardian or are genuinely waiting for the end of the world.

 

It would seem some still just don't get that more people want out and the recent GE was a reflection of that. The UK is doing much better than most EU countries and when you have a few countries to keep a float, such a Greece, Italy to name a few the UK will be more than fine once we leave the EU.

 

 

 

Notice the deep contrast between the words and tone of Von der Leyen now, and Tusk, just a very few months ago.

 

Now it's all very well to suggest an extension to the transition period and negotiations but will the EU allow this without insisting on continued contributions from the UK? Or is Von der Leyen just assuming that the UK would just keep on paying?

 

This little speech from John Hayes, I found to be interesting. I knew there had been just one year when the UK was not a net contributor but couldn't remember which one. Lo and behold it was 1975 - the year of the "let's stay in the Common Market" referendum! How about that? ????