Irish leader says EU will have upper hand in UK trade talks

Ireland’s prime minister has warned Britain that Brexit is far from finished -- and the European Union will have the upper hand in upcoming negotiations on future relations between the two sides.

The U.K. is due to leave the EU on Friday, the first nation in the bloc to do so. It then enters an 11-month transition period in which Britain will continue to follow the bloc’s rules while the two sides work out new deals on trade, security and other areas.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Monday that “the European Union is a union of 27 member states. The U.K. is only one country.”

“And we have a population and a market of 450 million people. The U.K., it's about 60 (million),” he told the BBC. “So if these were two teams up against each other playing football, who do you think has the stronger team?

“I always say we're only at halftime on Brexit, it's not done yet,” Varadkar added, ahead of a meeting in Dublin with the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is adamant that he won’t agree to extend the Brexit transition beyond the end of 2020, even if a deal has not been struck.

Varadkar, however, said it would be difficult to secure a comprehensive agreement in time and there was a chance a deal might need to be approved by parliaments in all 27 EU countries -- any of which could hold it up.

“We need to get down to business very quickly trying to get that trade deal, which is absolutely essential for the Irish economy, as well as of course for Britain's as well,” said Varadkar, who is battling to retain his job in an election on Feb. 8.

Ireland is the only EU country to share a land border with the U.K., and Britain is one of Ireland’s top trading partners.

Follow AP’s full coverage of Brexit and British politics at https://www.apnews.com/Brexit

MADRID (AP) — British and Spanish foreign ministers said a new round of talks held Friday over the status of the disputed territory of Gibraltar following Britain’s exit from the European Union were productive and significant progress was made.

The meeting was between Spain's José Manuel Albares, Britain’s David Cameron and European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic in Brussels. Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo also attended. It was the first time representatives from the four areas had come together for talks on the issue.

In a statement after the meeting, the parties said "discussions took place in a constructive atmosphere, with significant progress achieved.

“General political lines have been agreed (on), including on airport, goods and mobility. Negotiations will continue over the coming weeks to conclude the EU-UK Agreement,” it added.

All sides are eager to clinch a deal before European elections in June.

Britain left the European Union in 2020 with the relationship between Gibraltar and the bloc unresolved. Talks on a deal to ensure people and goods can keep flowing over the Gibraltar-Spain border have made halting progress in the 19 rounds of negotiations so far, but both Spanish and U.K. officials have recently expressed optimism about a deal.

In Britain’s 2016 Brexit referendum, 96% of voters in Gibraltar supported remaining in the EU. The tiny territory on Spain's southern tip depends greatly on access to the EU market for its 34,000 inhabitants.

Gibraltar was ceded to Britain in 1713, but Spain has maintained its sovereignty claim ever since. Relations concerning the Rock, as it is popularly referred to in English, have had their ups and downs over the centuries.

A major sticking point has been who controls Gibraltar’s airport, which under the proposed free-movement deal would be an external border of the EU. The U.K. and Gibraltar have resisted Spain’s insistence that Spanish border officials be based at the airport, which is also home to a Royal Air Force base.

The British Foreign Office said Thursday that while it did not expect a final agreement Friday, "getting senior political figures from the UK, European Commission, Spain and Gibraltar in one room is significant.”

Associated Press writer Jill Lawless reported from London.