Barely 48 hours after Boris Johnson declared it was “very, very likely” that UK-EU trade deal talks would fail, the UK prime minister agreed to junk a Sunday deadline for a firm decision on their fate, and sent his officials back to the negotiating table.
Negotiators had toiled until late Saturday in Brussels on the core sticking points in the talks on a deal that is supposed to take effect on January 1: fair competition arrangements for companies achieved through a regulatory “level playing field”; and EU fishing rights in UK waters.
As British negotiators refuelled on late-night bacon sandwiches, and some of their EU counterparts headed off to a well-known Brussels friterie, both sides sensed there was a possible way forward.
“We are not close to a deal — it is just that there is enough progress for them to consider it is worth continuing the talks,” said one EU official. “We are not flogging a dead horse.”
Mr Johnson’s agreement to extend the…