"Great will to reach agreement" in Brexit dispute

Berlin (dpa) - Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has once again issued an urgent warning against a failure of the negotiations on a trade pact between the EU and Great Britain after Brexit. With today’s health and economic challenges, people on both sides of the Channel have enough to shoulder, he said on Monday after a meeting with EU negotiator Michel Barnier in Berlin. "So it would be totally irresponsible to burden them in this position with the additional problems through a no-deal". The EU will therefore enter the final phase of the negotiations with a constructive attitude. "The EU is negotiating with a great will to reach an agreement", said Maas. "Our door is still open for a close and ambitious partnership with Britain."

The negotiations with Great Britain are aimed at agreeing a trade deal for the period from 2021. Friday saw the ninth round of negotiations end without a breakthrough. Time is now extremely tight: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has set a deadline of 15 October. From an EU perspective, an agreement must be ready by 31 October for it to be ratified. Britain left the EU on 31 January. At the end of the transitional period, the country will also withdraw from the internal market and customs union at the end of the year. If no agreement is reached, tariffs and high trade barriers will be the result. Although the economic pressure is enormous, Johnson flirts with such a no-deal scenario time and again.