Commission chief to meet president on Sunday as Irish PM says deal will ‘hopefully’ be signed this weekend
The EU appears to be on the verge of signing a trade deal with Donald Trump after the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, announced she would meet the US president on Sunday during his four-day trip to Scotland.
Trump was scheduled to land on Friday evening before the opening of his new golf course in Aberdeenshire and was planning to meet the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, on Monday.
The European Commission said von der Leyen’s visit would be at Trump’s invitation. Ireland’s taoiseach, Micheál Martin, said on Friday a deal would “hopefully be signed off before the weekend is over”.
Before boarding an Air Force One flight to Glasgow, the US president said the EU had a “50/50” chance of a deal, but later said his teams were working “diligently” to land the “big one” with the bloc, potentially signalling an end to the threat of a trade war.
