EU gives upbeat assessment of state of Brexit trade talks

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union issued Friday one of its most upbeat assessments of state of post-Brexit tre negotiations, as talks face an ever tighter deline for a deal to enter into force for start of new year.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said “we've seen in last days, better progress, more movement on important files."

“This is good," von der Leyen told reporters, in comments that contrast sharply with previous statements over talks that have dragged on with little progress for months.

Her comment came a day after a member of EU negotiating team tested positive for coronavirus, which led to high-level talks being suspended. She said that because legal texts h me such progress, furr discussions by video over next days could progress too “since re is w substance where you can go through line by line."

Over past few months, talks have failed to much heway on some key issues, tably over fishing rights, business regulations and state aid.

“Progress, for example, has been me on question of state aid,” von der Leyen said over a key EU demand that U.K. does t excessively subsidize products that could undercut local EU products.

Despite upbeat assessment, von der Leyen sought to temper any excessive optimism that may be generated.

“re are quite some meters to finish line," she said. “Indeed, time pressure is high without any question at moment."

Though U.K. left EU on Jan. 31, it remains within bloc’s tariff-free single market and customs union until end of this year. A tre deal would ensure re are tariffs and quotas on tre in goods between two sides, but re would still be technical costs, partly associated with customs checks and n-tariff barriers on services.

However, a tre deal needs to be sorted out soon given that EU will need about 4 weeks to vet, translate any agreement into all langus and get necessary approvals from member states and European parliament.

Though both sides would suffer ecomically from a failure to secure a tre deal, most ecomists think British ecomy would take a greater hit, at least in near-term, as it is relatively more reliant on tre with EU than vice versa.

To guard against any failure to get a deal, France and Belgium, two close neighbors of Britain, asked at an EU summit Thursday to speed up preparations for a -deal scenario on Jan. 1 when sudden change of end of a transition period without a tre deal could cause immediate disruptions in commerce and chaos at borders.

bloc has accused Britain of wanting to retain access to EU’s lucrative markets, much like any EU country, without agreeing to follow its rules. EU fears Britain will slash social and environmental standards, and pump state money into U.K. industries, becoming a low-regulation ecomic rival on bloc’s doorstep.

Britain says EU is making unreasonable demands and is failing to treat it as an independent, sovereign state.

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Jill Lawless contributed from London