Von der Leyen and Johnson give each other one last chance to make a post-Brexit deal

Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen, at the start of their meeting in London last January.HENRY NICHOLLS / Reuters

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, have decided this Saturday to give themselves another opportunity, probably the last, to reach an agreement on the commercial relationship between the EU and the United Kingdom after Brexit.

Von der Leyen and Johnson have had an emergency phone conversation after negotiations in London stalled on Friday.

After the call, which lasted almost an hour, both leaders stated in a joint statement: "While recognizing the seriousness of our differences, we have agreed that our negotiating teams make a new effort to assess whether they can be resolved."

Contacts will resume this Sunday in Brussels.

The European chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, and the British, David Frost, agreed on a pause in London on Friday due to the impossibility of continuing to advance and waiting to receive instructions from their respective leaderships.

Time is running out just four weeks before the expiration of the transitional period that began after the United Kingdom left the EU on 31 January.

The call between Brussels and London will allow Barnier and Frost to re-establish contacts, even though the time to reach an agreement is very short.

On December 31, the transitional period of Brexit expires, which has kept the application of European standards intact in the United Kingdom and has allowed the traffic of goods, services and passengers with total normality.

But on January 1 serious disturbances could occur, especially in the transit of goods, if a commercial agreement is not reached to regulate the relationship.

The draft of the commercial treaty is drafted and assumed by both parties in its entirety.

But there are still profound divergences over the rules to ensure fair competition for the United Kingdom in the European market, the system of control and punishment of possible infringements and the access of the fishing fleet to British fishing grounds.

The three points were identified months ago as the last stumbling blocks.

But neither side is satisfied with the other side's offers.

"We both emphasize that an agreement is not possible if these three points are not resolved," Von der Leyen and Johnson said in their joint statement.

Both leaders have agreed to speak again on Monday night, after another 48 hours of negotiation by the Barnier and Frost teams.

The deadline given is significant because next Monday the Johnson government plans to give the final push in the House of Commons to the so-called internal market law, a legislative project that, according to Brussels, flagrantly violates the terms of the agreement exit from the EU regarding the relationship between Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland.

The EU regards this law as a declaration of diplomatic war and a clear signal that London would not be ready for a reliable commercial relationship as of January 1.

The passage of the law could frustrate the negotiations or cloud them to the point of making an agreement impossible.

The risk of a sudden break at the end of the year already fuels mutual reproaches.

London accuses the European side, in particular France, of having hardened the demands in the final stretch of the negotiations.

Brussels assures that the British Government has wasted several months without being fully involved in the negotiation and only in the final stretch, as of October 22, has it begun to seek the agreement with some determination.

The negotiations intensified during November, but they ran into the pandemic, because a case of Covid-19 on the European side forced Barnier and a large part of his team to quarantine.

After the period of isolation, the Frenchman and his closest collaborators returned to the British capital last Sunday, where they have stayed for a week in which some progress has been made, but not enough.

In some European capitals, with Paris at the helm, alarm spread over the risk that the European team would make too many concessions for the sake of the deal.

On Friday, the Government of Emmanuel Macron invoked the threat of a veto in case the text crossed any red line regarding the mechanisms to avoid possible unfair competition from British companies and on the access of the European fleet to Kingdom waters. United in conditions as close as possible to the current situation.

At the end of the day, the negotiators gave up and announced a pause awaiting instructions.

Barnier and his team returned to the community capital this Saturday to inform Von der Leyen about the last hour and the difficulties in reaching an agreement.

The time available to achieve it is short because the possible pact would have to be accepted by the 27 capitals and ratified by both the European Parliament and the British. Procedures that threaten not to arrive on time if the final text of the future trade agreement is not closed in a matter of days. The European Parliament is willing to hold an extraordinary plenary session at the end of the month (probably on the 28th) to pronounce on the agreement. But it demands enough time to subject it to proper scrutiny.