- Ursula von der Leyen used speech in London today to set out her Brexit demands
- She warned it will be 'impossible' to strike a complete trade deal by end of 2020
- She suggested her preference is for the Brexit transition period to be extended
- Boris Johnson categorically ruled out extension, wants full deal by end of year
- Mr Johnson and Ms von der Leyen met in No10 this afternoon for formal talks
Boris Johnson welcomed EU boss Ursula von der Leyen to Downing Street for talks this afternoon
New EU chief Ursula von der Leyen arrived at 10 Downing Street for talks with Boris Johnson this afternoon after claiming it will be 'impossible' to strike a complete trade deal with the UK by the end of this year.
It is the first formal meeting between the pair and it is likely to set the tone for crunch post-Brexit trade negotiations which will dominate the months ahead.
Ms von der Leyen risked souring relations with Mr Johnson before the showdown after she used a speech in London this morning to lay down the gauntlet to the Prime Minister.
The UK will leave the EU on January 31 but will then enter a 'standstill' transition period, ending in December, during which the two sides will try to hammer out the terms of a future trading relationship.
Mr Johnson has vowed not to extend the transition period in any circumstances and he wants the UK and EU to have agreed a full deal in the next 11 months.
But Ms von der Leyen said during an address at the London School of Economics, where she spent a year in hiding as a student in the late 1970s after becoming a target of the left-wing terrorist Baader-Meinhof gang, that a full deal would not be achievable.
She said: 'Without an extension of the transition period beyond 2020 you cannot expect to agree on every single aspect of our new partnership. We will have to prioritise.'
Ms von der Leyen hinted she would prefer the transition period to be extended but suggested if it is not then the UK could leave the EU with only a partial trade deal in place.
However, she said that regardless of what happens Britain and Brussels will remain the 'best of friends' after Brexit.
The Prime Minister was expected to use today's meeting to warn that the end of 2020 must be viewed as a hard deadline for talks.
Responding to Ms von der Leyen's comments, the PM's deputy spokesman said the UK had been 'clear that the implementation period will end at the end of the year and we will work with the EU to negotiate a free trade agreement'.
A government source said: ‘On transition there will be one clear message from us: it will not be extended.'
Ms von der Leyen and the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier - who also attended No10 this afternoon - have previously branded the schedule 'unrealistic'.
In another pressure tactic, it has emerged that Mr Barnier has been sabre-rattling over protections for EU citizens living in the UK, calling for a fully independent watchdog to guarantee their rights.
Ms von der Leyen's arrival at No10 came as Britain took another step towards formally leaving the bloc, with the Withdrawal Agreement Bill continuing its progress through the Commons.
Mr Johnson was expected to tell Ms von der Leyen, the new president of the European Commission, that the end of 2020 must be treated as a hard deadline for striking a post-Brexit trade deal between the EU and UK
But Ms von der Leyen had earlier today warned it would be 'impossible' to finish a complete agreement by the end of the year. She used a speech at the LSE in London to warn that 'without an extension of the transition period beyond 2020 you cannot expect to agree on every single aspect of our new partnership'
Mr Johnson's tough stance on the transition period echoes a key pledge in the Tory manifesto and means there is now a race against time to try to agree the terms of a future partnership.
Ms von der Leyen initially used her speech at the LSE to launch a charm offensive as she praised the 'fantastic sense of humour of the British people’ and spoke of her 'love for this country’.
She added: ‘In just over three weeks on the 31st of January the UK will spend its last day as a member of the EU. This will be a tough and emotional day.
‘But when the sun rises again on February 1 the European Union and the United Kingdom will still be the best of friends and partners.
‘The bonds between us will still be unbreakable.’
But she struck a pessimistic tone as she said that while the EU wants to strike a 'truly ambitious and comprehensive new partnership’ with the UK she does not believe that work can be completed by the end of 2020.
She said: ‘We will go as fast as we can but the truth is that our partnership cannot and will not be the same as before and it cannot or will not be as close as before because with every choice comes a consequence, with every decision comes a trade off.’
Ms von der Leyen said the EU was willing to work 'day and night' to get a deal done but warned that talks would be 'tough'.
Describing the end of the year deadline as 'very, very tight', she said: 'It is basically impossible to negotiate all of what I have been mentioning… therefore we will have to prioritise as long as we face that deadline of the end of 2020.’
The euro-federalist once seen as a successor to Merkel
Ursula von der Leyen is the daughter of Brussels-born Eurocrat Ernst Albrecht, a senior German politician who worked in the EU Commission in the 1950s.
It meant she spent her early years in the Belgian capital and partly explains her fanatic eurofederalism.
Ursula with her centre-right politician father Ernst Albrecht and mother Heidi-Adele Albrecht in 1978
A former German defence minister, who has replaced Jean-Claude Juncker as EU Commission president, Ms von der Leyen has previously called for a 'United States of Europe' with its own army.
The mother-of-seven has a medical degree and studied at the London School of Economics as well as Stanford in the US.
She spent 12 months in the 'seething, international, colourful city' of London to avoid the Baader-Meinhof Gang, a hard Left group that carried out a string of bomb attacks and assassinations, she revealed last year.
While in Britain she called herself Rose Ladson - the name of her American great-grandmother - to avoid detection.
The qualified gynaecologist only entered politics in her 40s, but regularly emerges in opinion polls as one of Germany's most popular politicians.
Ms von der Leyen is a mother of seven children. She is pictured with her family in 2005
She was Angela Merkel's defence minister from 2013, but became mired in controversy over the awarding of contracts – for which she was eventually exonerated – and has faced criticism about gaps in military readiness.
She was once seen as a potential replacement to German Chancellor Mrs Merkel, but the contracts controversy saw her fade from contention.
The 61-year-old speaks fluent English and French – a crucial qualification for her new role in Brussels.
She insisted that the negotiations would not be 'all or nothing' as she suggested some issues relating to the future partnership could be discussed in 2021 and beyond.
But she delivered a clear hint that her preference would be for the transition period to be extended to make more time for talks and to avoid any disruption.
She said: 'I would prefer that we look at the whole scenery before the summer starts... because we might together want to take a reconsideration of the timeframe before the 1st of July.'
The divorce agreement struck between the UK and the EU states that the transition period can be extended by up to two years if both sides agree - but a decision must be made before July.
Mr Johnson was expected to tell Ms von der Leyen - a German former defence minister and mother of seven - he wants a looser Canada-style free trade agreement without the close political alignment once planned by his predecessor Theresa May.
The 'introductory meeting' between Mr Johnson and Ms von der Leyen came as it emerged that Mr Barnier expressed concerns in a letter sent before Christmas that the UK could renege on commitments in the divorce deal Mr Johnson sealed last year.
According to the Telegraph, he said the citizens' rights watchdog - officially the Independent Monitoring Authority (IMA) - must have the ability 'to act rapidly and in full independence' on complaints from EU citizens.
A draft resolution due to be debated in the European Parliament next week expresses 'concern' about the set-up of the IMA, and notes that the authority must be 'truly independent' and should be operational immediately after the transition period ends.
Brexit Secretary Steve Barclay will also attend the talks in Downing Street this afternoon.
In a round of interviews this morning, Mr Barclay insisted the prospects for a trade deal were good as it represented a 'win-win' for both sides.
'I think there is scope for a very positive and optimistic approach to the trade deal,' he told Sky News.
'Both sides have committed to securing a trade deal by the end of December 2020. That is in the Political Declaration.'
He also dismissed the suggestion that the government was looking to water down the rights of EU nationals living in the UK after Brexit.
Brussels had insisted that trade talks would not be on the agenda at today's meeting.
European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer said the session would 'set the scene', but in order to launch trade talks the European Council - made up of the 27 remaining EU nations - would need to approve a mandate 'and we are not at that stage yet'.
'This is not a meeting that will go into the details of the trade negotiation per se,' he added.
Mr Barnier told MEPs last month: 'It is unrealistic that a global negotiation can be done in 11 months, so we can't do it all.
'We will do all we can to get what I call the 'vital minimum' to establish a relationship with the UK if that is the timescale.'
Labour last night dropped an attempt to amend the EU Withdrawal Bill to force an extension of the transition period by another two years.
MPs will continue to scrutinise the Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB) on Wednesday in the second day of its committee stage.
On Tuesday, Mr Barclay insisted that the government would stick to its EU departure timetable after facing calls to guarantee the UK will leave with a trade agreement.
The Cabinet minister said the Conservatives had committed in their manifesto to not extend the implementation period beyond December 2020.
Mr Barclay expressed confidence in negotiating a trade agreement with the EU in the 11 month transition, but did not rule out a no-deal arrangement.
Clause 33 of the WAB seeks to prohibit ministers from trying to extend the implementation period, which would begin once the UK leaves the EU on January 31.
Labour said the WAB is a 'bad deal' for the UK and called on the Government to come forward with proposals to show how it will avoid the 'catastrophe of no-deal at the end of this year'.
Ms von der Leyen was greeted by pro-EU campaigners as she left Europe House in central London today
The president of the European Commission was joined in Downing Street by the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier
Wednesday's Commons debate on the Bill is likely to be dominated by an amendment demanding the government continues to negotiate to take in lone child refugees from Europe after Brexit.
A clause containing a commitment to strike a deal with the EU so unaccompanied child refugees could continue to be reunited with their families in the UK after exit day was removed from the Bill when it was reintroduced to Parliament after the election.
Clause 37 replaces the pledge with a watered-down vow for ministers to 'make a statement' on the progress of the talks once the divorce with Brussels is complete.
Labour leadership hopeful Sir Keir Starmer and Lord Alf Dubs, who fled from the Nazis on the Kindertransport to Britain when he was six years old, have written to all Tory MPs calling on them to vote against the Prime Minister's 'disgraceful' change.
