BRITAIN SHOWING TOO LITTLE REALISM OVER EU TALKS - GERMAN MINISTER

Reuters 15 July 2020 

© Reuters/POOL Minister of State for Europe at the German Federal Foreign Office Roth gives statement for media in Berlin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Talks on Britain's future relationship with the European Union will be a major topic of bloc business from September, but until now Britain has shown insufficient realism about what can be achieved, Germany's Europe Minister Michael Roth said.

Roth was speaking before a meeting of the bloc's foreign ministers, which he will chair, since Germany holds the EU's rotating presidency until the end of the year.

Britain continues to participate in many EU structures until the so-called transition period ends on December 31, by which time a new agreement on ties must be in place if serious commercial and logistic disruption is to be avoided.

(Reporting by Thomas Escritt; Editing by Michelle Martin)