EU Tells U.K. It’s Time to Commit to Key Elements of Trade Deal
- U.K. must sign up to key planks of deal before talks advance
- Legal action over internal market bill could begin next week
This article is for subscribers only.
The European Union has told U.K. negotiators they must accept some of the bloc’s key demands over their future relationship in crunch meetings next week if they want to make progress before an October deadline, according to an official familiar with the discussions.
The two sides meet for a final round of formal discussions in Brussels where they will try to establish a basis for working on the text of a deal. The EU wants the U.K. to make commitments in key areas such as state aid as a condition for moving on to a more intense phase of negotiations in which a core group will try to thrash out the wording of an agreement.