LONDON — 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 U.K.-EU relations, sparked the collapse of the Belfast-based regional government and and threatened to set back Northern Ireland’s decades-old peace process.
In a joint statement on Sunday the U.K. 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.”
Sunak’s office set out a tightly choreographed agenda for Monday suggesting a deal is all but done. It said the leaders’ lunchtime “final talks” would be followed by a meeting of the U.K. Cabinet, then, if there is a deal, by a joint news conference and a statement by Sunak to the House of Commons.
U.K. 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 U.K. that shares a border with an EU member, the Republic of Ireland. When the U.K. 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 U.K. That angered British unionist politicians in Belfast, who say th