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Time Running Out on Britain-EU Trade, Security Deal

Jamie Dettmer

   European Union leaders say the most likely outcome after months of
   fractious haggling with London is that Britain will leave the bloc at
   the end of the year without a trade and security deal -- an upshot that
   will have serious economic repercussions on both sides of the English
   Channel and could poison relations between the EU and the British for
   years to come.

   During a short briefing at the end of an all-night summit in Brussels,
   Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president, told the EU's 27
   national leaders that there was a "higher probability for no deal than
   a deal," according to officials.

   With a firm Sunday deadline for talks looming, Britain's Boris Johnson
   echoed the EU president's pessimism, saying a no-deal outcome from
   Brexit trade talks was "looking very, very likely."

   The prime minister suggested a breakthrough in the deadlocked talks
   would need a "big offer, a big change" from the EU, but that he had
   "yet to see it."

   But unlike the Europeans, Johnson sounded an upbeat note, adding: "It
   is looking very, very likely that we will have to go for a solution
   that I think would be wonderful for the UK, and we'd be able to do
   exactly what we want from January 1."

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