MNI BRIEF: UK/EU Trade Talks To Continue Past Sunday

European Union and UK trade negotiators will continue to talk in coming days as they seek a breakthrough on the current impasse in trade talks between the two parties.

In statements released Sunday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said "we both think that it is responsible at this point in time to go the extra mile", noting a "constructive and useful" phone call with Johnson.

The full joint statement said "We had a useful phone call this morning. We discussed the major unresolved topics.

Our negotiating teams have been working day and night over recent days.

And despite the exhaustion after almost a year of negotiations, despite the fact that deadlines have been missed over and over we think it is responsible at this point to go the extra mile.

We have accordingly mandated our negotiators to continue the talks and to see whether an agreement can even at this late stage be reached".