Brexit talks to go past Sunday deadline

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said trade talks with the U.K. would stretch past the original Sunday deadline.

“I had a constructive and useful phone call with Prime Minister Boris Johnson. We discussed the major, unsolved topics,” said von der Leyen in a video tweeted on Sunday.

“Our negotiation teams have been working day and night over the recent days. And despite the exhaustion after almost one year of negotiations and despite the fact that deadlines have been missed over and over, we both think that it is responsible at this point in time to go the extra mile.”

We had a useful call with @BorisJohnson this morning.

We agreed that talks will continue.https://t.co/rZpN4PmS1i

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) December 13, 2020

The U.K. officially left the European Union (EU) in January, but has maintained trade relations up until now to give negotiators time to reach a new agreement.

Last Thursday, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson cast doubt on the possibility that his government would be able to completely leave the EU with a trade agreement in place.

“Now is the time for the public and for businesses to get ready for January the first. Because believe me, there’s going to be change either way,” Johnson said at the time.

CNBC notes that EU has a contingency plan if a trade agreement is not reached quickly that would maintain road connections and allow mutual access to fishing waters for at least one year. Border checks and taxes would be added to goods travelling between the U.K. and the EU, however.