The UK and the EU failed to make progress in talks on post-Brexit relations this week due to major differences and called off a one-on-one meeting between their chief negotiators, officials said on Thursday.

The meetings in Brussels were the first held face-to-face since the coronavirus shutdown, with hopes high that progress would be made.

"Our goal was to get negotiations successfully and quickly on a trajectory to reach an agreement," Michel Barnier, the EU's chief negotiator, said in a statement. "However, after four days of discussions, serious divergences remain," he added. "We continue to believe that an agreement is possible and in everyone's interest." 

Britain's chief negotiator David Frost closely mirrored Barnier's statement, warning that "significant differences" remain. "We remain committed to working hard to find an early understanding on the principles underlying an agreement," he added.

The talks this week and next were being held in a more limited format than earlier rounds in the hope that a more personal encounter could deliver a breakthrough.

Signaling a willingness to not disrupt the talks, Barnier and Frost coordinated the release of their statements and no meetings with the press were planned by either side.

The UK left the EU on January 30 and a post-Brexit transition period during which the country still benefits from de facto EU membership comes to an end on December 31.

Without a new agreement, the two sides would see ties reduced to minimum standards set by the World Trade Organization with high tariffs, quotas and serious disruptions to business.

London is pushing hard to agree on the broad outlines of a trade deal this summer to give businesses clarity well before the end of the year.

The EU is less pressed for time and believes that necessary ratification by the European Parliament and other member states would require a deal to be done by late October. 

(Cover: The start of a round of post-Brexit trade deal talks between the EU and the UK, in Brussels, Belgium, June 29, 2020. /Reuters)