EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has lambasted the UK for imposing a "short" deadline for trade talks and then refusing to "budge" on key issues - but the UK has accused the EU of not treating it as an "independent state".

Speaking at a Brussels news conference following the conclusion of the second round of negotiations on the future EU-UK relationship, Mr Barnier listed areas where there had been "disappointing" progress.

Without an extenstion to the Brexit transition period, during which the UK is continuing with the status quo of EU membership, both sides have until the end of this year to strike a trade deal.

If an agreement is not reached, tariffs and quotas could be imposed on goods travelling between the EU and UK.

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson has so far resisted pressure to extend the transition period beyond the end of December, despite calls for him to do so amid the coronavirus pandemic.


After outlining those areas where little progress had been achieved in the latest round of talks, which were conducted by video conference, Mr Barnier said: "It's exceptional, never in the history for such important negotiations with any third country, have we been under such time pressure.

"The UK, therefore, cannot impose this short, brief timeline and at the same time not budge, make progress, on some topics that are of importance to the EU."

The next negotiating rounds are scheduled for 11 May and 1 June.

The terms of the UK's withdrawal agreement from the EU, which was ratified in January, allow an extension of up to two years to the transition period.

However, this has to be agreed before 1 July.

A UK government spokesperson described the latest negotiating round as "full and constructive" but admitted "limited progress was made in bridging the gaps between us and the EU".

They added there was "regret" that the "EU's offer on goods trade falls well short of recent precedent in free trade agreements it has agreed with other sovereign countries".

There are also "significant differences of principle in other areas", including fisheries, the spokesperson said.

They continued: "For example we will not make progress on the so-called 'level playing field' and the governance provisions until the EU drops its insistence on imposing conditions on the UK which are not found in the EU's other trade agreements and which do not take account of the fact that we have left the EU as an independent state."

Mr Barnier warned that "genuine progress" would need to be made by June if, by the end of the year, a deal is to be struck "commensurate to the level of our economic interdependence and geographical proximity".

He accused the UK - whose negotiating team is led by Mr Johnson's EU adviser David Frost - of not committing "seriously" on a "number of fundamental points" from the political declaration on a future UK-EU relationship, which was previously agreed by both sides.

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Mr Barnier said the political declaration needs to be implemented in a "serious, objective, legal way", adding: "This is not the case now yet in a number of areas.

"I regret that and it worries me."

He listed four areas - including justice, fisheries and the so-called "level playing field" on rules and standards - where progress had been "disappointing".

"This week, the UK failed to engage substantially on these topics," Mr Barnier said.

"It argued that our positions are too far apart to reach agreement.

"It also denounced the basic premise that economic inter-connectedness and geographic proximity require robust guarantees.

"Yet again this is what we agreed with Boris Johnson in our joint political declaration."

Mr Barnier also reiterated that the UK would have to pay a "lump-sum" contribution to the EU budget if the transition period is extended beyond 31 December.