Boris Johnson and Outgoing European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will hold a working lunch over Brexit on Monday, marking the first time the pair meet since Johnson assumed the British premiership.
A European Commission spokesperson announced the meeting on Friday, which will be the first time Juncker and the Conservative British premier discuss Brexit in person, according to Het Nieuwsblad.
The working lunch is expected to see both leaders discuss the deadlocked negotiations of Britain's departure from the European Union, which Johnson insists must be renegotiated to scrap the so-called Irish border backstop.
But the EU has shut down repeated requests for renegotiation, arguing for the backstop to remain in place in order to prevent the return of a hard border between the British province of Northern Ireland and the EU's Ireland.
While Johson has said he prefers an orderly departure, he has not shied away from pulling his country out of the bloc without an agreement.
On Tuesday, the EU's lead Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said that Britain had yet to come up with "legally viable" alternatives to avoid a hard border.
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times
