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

Boris Johnson and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen are holding a crunch summit today with the Brexit trade talks on the brink of collapse.

The leaders are making a desperate bid to inject some momentum into the negotiations, with the UK insisting it will walk away unless progress is made by next month. 

Temperatures have been rising, with the EU swiping that Britain cannot afford to be without a trade deal amid the coronavirus crisis, and demanding concessions over fishing rights and following Brussels rules. 

The high level meeting will take place by video conference call after the two sides agreed to ‘intensify’ contacts as the clock ticks down to the end of the transition period on December 31. 

The EU formally accepted last week that the UK would not seek any extension to the transition which allows Britain continued access to the EU single market while talks continue.

Mr Johnson is expected to say that the talks need to be ‘swiftly concluded,’ providing the public and business with certainty on the way forward by the autumn at the latest.

He will reiterate his desire for an ‘ambitious’ free trade agreement, but stress the UK is prepared to start dealing on World Trade Organisation rules from January 1 that is not possible.

Mrs von der Leyen will be joined on the conference call by European Council president Charles Michel and the president of the European Parliament David Sassoli.

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

The talks will be followed by 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.