UK and EU leaders to meet amid hope of Brexit trade spat fix

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Union leader Ursula von der Leyen are set to hold face-to-face talks, with expectations high they will seal a deal to resolve a thorny post-Brexit trade dispute.

That would mark a breakthrough after months of bitter wrangling that has soured UK-EU relations, sparked the collapse of the Belfast-based regional government and threatened to set back Northern Ireland's decades-old peace process.

In a joint statement on Sunday the UK and the EU said European Commission President von der Leyen will travel to Britain on Monday so the leaders can work towards “shared, practical solutions for the range of complex challenges around the Protocol on Ireland and Northern Ireland.”

UK Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said earlier Sunday that the two sides were on the “cusp” of striking an agreement over trade rules known as the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a border with an EU member, the Republic of Ireland.

When the UK left the bloc in 2020, the two sides agreed to keep the Irish border free of customs posts and other checks because an open border is a key pillar of Northern Ireland's peace process.

Instead there are checks on some goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK That angered British unionist politicians in Belfast, who say the new trade border in the Irish Sea undermines Northern Ireland's place in the United Kingdom.

Relations between the UK and the EU, severely tested during years of Brexit wrangling, chilled still further amid disputes over the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The British government introduced a bill that would let it unilaterally rip up parts of the Brexit agreement, a move the EU called illegal.

The bloc accused the UK of failing to honour the legally binding treaty it had signed.

The mood between London and Brussels improved after Sunak, a pragmatic Brexit supporter, took office in October, replacing more belligerent predecessors Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.

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