European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after the EU summit “positions remain apart on fundamental issues” in the the post-Brexit trade negotiations with the UK. They would decide on Sunday “whether we have conditions for an agreement, or not”. But, “one way or the other, in less than three weeks, it will be new beginnings for old friends”.
She insisted that EU’s proposals would not undermine UK’s sovereignty. On the level playing field, “this is not to say that we would require the UK to follow us every time we decide to raise our level of ambition, for example, in the environmental field,” she added. “They would remain free – sovereign if you wish – to decide what they want to do. We would simply adapt the conditions for access to our market accordingly the decision of the United Kingdom, and this would apply vice versa.”
