EU and UK announce that they will go the 'extra mile' to reach an agreement

In a joint statement, the UK and EU confirmed that talks have discussed major unresolved topics this morning (13 December).

European Commission Preident Ursula von der Leyen read: “Our negotiating teams have been working day and night over recent days. And despite the exhaustion after almost a year of negotiations, despite the fact that deadlines have been missed over and over we think it is responsible at this point to go the extra mile.”

The negotiators will continue to talk to see whether an agreement can be reached even at this late stage be reached.

The Sun’s journalist, Nick Gutteridge, reports that both sides are thrashing out rules on unfair competition, level playing rules. This includes how it should be defined, the process for triggering any rebalancing measures, such as introducing tariffs or restrictions and whether or not this could be applied unilaterally. 

Gutteridge writes that one EU proposal that is being considered is for a 'distortion test' that could be triggered by either side, this would require an independent arbitrage system. According to the same journalist: “The EU stresses this would only apply in cases of 'significant divergences' in standards - it wouldn't be used to scrutinize the minutiae of every British law. At a certain stage the competitive advantage might become so big you have to do something.”

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