Boris Johnson holds crunch summit with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen

The EU warned it will not accept a ‘pig in a poke’ deal today as Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen vowed to inject ‘momentum’ into agreeing future trade terms.

After holding a virtual summit, the leaders confirmed that the transition period will end in December, and declared that talks will be ‘intensified’ in July in a desperate bid to break the deadlock.

Mr Johnson said he believes there was a ‘very good’ chance of a settlement ‘provided we really focus now and get on and do it’. 

But as temperatures threatened to boil over, EU council president Charles Michel warned that Brussels will not accept a ‘pig in a poke’, saying it is ‘essential’ that the UK bows to EU standards on food and the environment. 

Mr Michel said a ‘broad and ambitious’ agreement was in both sides’ interests but the level playing field was ‘essential’. The EU was ‘ready to put a tiger in the tank but not to buy a pig in a poke’. 

In a joint statement after the summit, the EU and UK ‘noted the UK’s decision not to request any extension to the transition period’. 

‘The transition period will therefore end on 31 December 2020, in line with the provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement,’ they said.

The statement said the engagement so far had been ‘constructive’.

But it added: ‘The Parties agreed nevertheless that new momentum was required. They supported the plans agreed by Chief Negotiators to intensify the talks in July and to create the most conducive conditions for concluding and ratifying a deal before the end of 2020. 

‘This should include, if possible, finding an early understanding on the principles underlying any agreement.’

Mr Johnson has stressed that the UK is prepared to start dealing on World Trade Organisation rules from January 1 that is not possible.

Mrs von der Leyen was joined on the conference call by Mr Michel and the president of the European Parliament David Sassoli.

The Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove and the UK’s chief negotiator David Frost were with Mr Johnson.

There are now set to be a series of weekly discussions at official level for five weeks commencing June 29 looking at detailed technical issues.

For the first time, the negotiations are set to include face-to-face meetings. Both sides acknowledge that the remote nature of the process so far, due to the coronavirus pandemic, have hampered efforts to find a way forward.

Four rounds of video conferencing discussions made only limited progress with a series of major obstacles still to be overcome.

Mostly notably the two sides remain far apart on the issues of future access to UK fisheries and the so-called ‘level playing field’, the extent to which Britain is required to follow EU rules and standards in return for access to the single market.

The prospect that they will be unable to reach an agreement has alarmed business groups who warn that firms reeling from the impact of the coronavirus lockdown are ill-prepared to with a major upheaval in trading arrangements with the UK’s biggest trading partner.