UK, EU hold Brexit trade talks by video amid virus outbreak

The European Union and Britain said Wednesday they had held “constructive” talks on their future relationship despite the coronavirus pandemic scuttling face-to-face negotiations. But the two sides remain far apart on whether a deal can be sealed by the end of the year.

Chief negotiators Michel Barnier, for the EU, and David Frost for the U.K. met by video conference to set dates for further week-long rounds of talks in late April, mid-May and early June.

The two sides said in a joint statement that the goal was “to make real, tangible progress” by June, when a high-level summit is scheduled to decide whether there is a chance of success by the end of the year.

Britain officially left the 27-nation bloc on Jan. 31, but remains within the EU’s economic orbit, including its single market for trade in goods and services, until the end of the year. The two sides have until then to work out a new relationship covering trade, security and a host of other issues.

The EU already considered that a tight deadline — most trade deals take years to negotiate. Under the terms of the U.K.-EU divorce agreement, the transition period can be extended for two more years.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisted he would not ask for that extension, before the coronavirus pandemic upended life and consumed the energies of governments around the globe.

Plans for talks in London and Brussels were scrapped and both Barnier and Frost fell sick with COVID-19, though both have recovered.

Both sides see the June summit as the last opportunity to postpone the deadline past Dec. 31. EU nations and the bloc’s top officials are overwhelmingly against hemming themselves into a tight deadline as set by London.

But even as Johnson recovers from a case of COVID-19 that put him in intensive care, the U.K. government says it will not ask for more time.

“The government’s policy on this is unchanged, and it’s also written in law that the transition period will end on Dec. 31,” Johnson’s spokesman, James Slack, said Wednesday.

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.