EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen: 'The more divergence there is, the more distant the partnership will be and without an extension of the transition period beyond 2020 you cannot expect to agree on every single aspect of our new partnership. We will have to prioritise.'
Ursula von der Leyen: 'We are ready to work day and night to get as much done within the timeframe we have. None of this means that it will be easy but we start this negotiation from a position of certainty, goodwill, shared interest and purpose and we should be optimistic.'
Von der Leyen: 'We will make as much as we can, go as far as we can, but the truth is our partnership cannot and will not be the same as before. It cannot and will not be as close as before because with every choice comes a consequences with every decision comes a trade off.'
Von der Leyen: 'Without the free movement of people you cannot have the free movement of capital, goods, and services. Without a Level Playing Field on environment, labour, tax, and state aid, you cannot have the highest quality access to the world’s largest Single Market.'
Von der Leyen said that on security/foreign policy/defence 'the truth is that Brexit will not resolve any of the existing challenges for the EU nor for the UK.' She says: 'It will require intensive cooperation on our foreign and security policies. That’s essential.'
Von der Leyen: 'The last few years have been difficult and divisive. I hope by being constructive and ambitious in the upcoming negotiation we can all move forward together. There will be tough talks. But I can assure you UK will always have a trusted friend and partner in EU.'
Von der Leyen: 'The bitter truth is the UK will be a 3rd country after Brexit and then we'll have to negotiate. I’m a true believer that as much exchange as possible we should allow to our citizens. We’re strong believers that we benefit both sides very much from free movement.'
Von der Leyen: 'The transition time, it is very, very tight. It is basically impossible to negotiate all of that I’ve been mentioning and the other dossiers that are there too therefore we’ll have to prioritise as long as we face that deadline of the end of 2020.'
Von der Leyen continues: 'I can only recommend that we prioritise in a way that we first of all tackle those topics where at the end of the year when we’re running out of time we would not have an international agreement or something to fall back on but only a hard exit.'
Von der Leyen says she wants to scope out priorities for the talks (and what will be left out) before the summer so PM Johnson has a chance to change his mind on not extending the transition. 'We might together want to take a reconsideration of the timeframe before the 1 July.'
Von der Leyen: 'Of course both sides have their strengths and their weaknesses, both sides have a field where they’re better off or not as good off. It’s a matter of always looking at the mutual interest. We want our economies to prosper , our citizens to have an easy life.'
