Britain still needs post-Brexit deals – but has the EU moved on?

In her final key pre-Brexit speech in 2019, Ursula von der Leyen declared she would "always be a remainer", insisting that Europe's "bond of friendship" with the UK would remain unbreakable. In her hour-long "state of the union" address this year, the EU's most senior executive official did not mention the UK once, despite common interests in Ukraine, the climate crisis, energy and China. It is a measure of how invisible the UK has become in Brussels. UK threats to unpick the Brexit deal, and years of toxic public EU-bashing by Boris Johnson when he was prime minister - and…