European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament these are “decisive days” for negotiations with the UK on a post-Brexit trade agreement, adding: “I cannot tell you today if, in the end, there will be a deal.”
She said the bloc is “ready to be creative” to resolve the major issues of fisheries policy, governance of any deal and measures to prevent unfair competition between the UK and EU, “but we are not ready to put into question the integrity of the single market, the main safeguard for European prosperity and wealth”.
READ MORE: Brexit: Scottish Government draws up contingency plan
She added: “One thing is clear: whatever the outcome, there has to be and there will be a clear difference between being a full member of the European Union and just being a valued partner.”
Negotiations are continuing, but a deal needs to be concluded in time for it to be ratified before the transition period expires at the end of the year.
Boris Johnson said the Government will not be extending the Brexit transition period.
Alliance MP Stephen Farry (North Down) said: “The Northern Ireland business community is extremely concerned that it is now impossible to be ready to fully implement the protocol from January 1.
“Their top priority is to ask the EU for an adjustment or grace period. This request is based on respect for the protocol and is not about an extension to the transition period.
“Will the Prime Minister give his support to this ask?”
READ MORE: UK should not go for Brexit deal at any price, says Rishi Sunak
Mr Johnson replied: “Of course we’re not going to extend the transition period but we want to make practical arrangements to help businesses in Northern Ireland and we’ve agreed, for instance, a one-year adjustment period so there is no disruption to the flow of medicines.
“And we’ve already launched a £200m trader support service to help agri-food businesses and others and that’s going to… more details will be announced shortly.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here