Boris Johnson – 2020 Joint Statement with President von der Leyen

The joint statement issued by Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, and President von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, on 5 December 2020.

In a phone call today on the on-going negotiations between the European Union and the United Kingdom, we welcomed the fact that progress has been achieved in many areas. Nevertheless, significant differences remain on three critical issues: level playing field, governance and fisheries. Both sides underlined that no agreement is feasible if these issues are not resolved.

Whilst recognising the seriousness of these differences, we agreed that a further effort should be undertaken by our negotiating teams to assess whether they can be resolved.

We are therefore instructing our chief negotiators to reconvene tomorrow in Brussels.

We will speak again on Monday evening.