BRUSSELS — British Prime Minister Theresa May failed Friday to make any breakthrough in Brexit talks with the European Union, as time runs out to move the negotiations into a critical second phase before the end of the year.
At a summit in Brussels, May met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the leaders of Belgium, Denmark, Lithuania and European Council President Donald Tusk, seeking to move the talks onto future relations between Britain and the EU, especially their trade ties.
“There are still issues across the various matters that we are negotiating on,” May told reporters after her meetings.
“But there has been a very positive atmosphere in the talks and a genuine feeling that we want to move forward together,” she added.
Britain is set to leave the bloc on March 29, 2019, but the negotiations must be wrapped up in less than a year to leave parliaments time to ratify the agreement.
EU leaders are set to decide in three weeks if the negotiations have made “sufficient progress” — on Britain’s financial settlement, the status of Irish borders and the rights of citizens hit by Brexit — for the talks to be expanded. Currently, it seems unlikely that will happen. (AP)