Brexit Talks to Continue As Johnson, EU Agree to 'Go Extra Mile' - Tasnim News Agency

(Tasnim) – Britain and the EU have taken a step forward towards striking a historic trade and security deal after a breakthrough in a telephone call between Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen offered grounds for fresh talks.

In a joint statement on Sunday, the UK prime minister and European commission president said the two sides had a responsibility to keep on working, with sources claiming progress was being made.

“We had a useful phone call this morning. We discussed the major unresolved topics,”, they said, The Guardian reported.

“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.

“We have accordingly mandated our negotiators to continue the talks and to see whether an agreement can even at this late stage be reached.”

The crunch call, described as “constructive” by Von der Leyen, appears to put the troubled talks on a new trajectory, days after the prime minister had said it was “very, very likely” the UK would exit the transition period without an agreement.

Sources said the two sides had found fresh agreement over clauses in a potential deal designed to ensure neither side could undercut the other as they set their own regulatory standards.