British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, are participating in  the difficult Brexit negotiations on Saturday. That’s what Von der Leyen’s spokesman says on Twitter.

Little progress is being made in the talks on a trade agreement between the United Kingdom and the European Union, said the Brussels chief negotiator Michel Barnier earlier this week. The telephone talks between Johnson and Von der Leyen should perhaps make progress in the negotiations.

In the area of the most important points of dispute, the British and European negotiators, according to Mr Barnier, have barely approached each other. We are talking about import taxes, monitoring the agreements and fishing. If there is no agreement before the end of this year, mutual trade will fall back on the very basic rules of the World Trade Organisation. This creates many obstacles.