EU warns of ‘difficult’ new phase in Brexit

Leaders praise talks but say negotiators will be challenged to meet March 2019 deadline

BRUSSELS— With British Prime Minister Theresa May already back home, European Union leaders stood united Friday in saluting the outcome of the first phase of Brexit negotiations, but warned London it will be “dramatically difficult” to get a full departure deal by the March 2019 deadline.

In a stunning nine months, Britain’s early braggadocio that it could “have our cake and eat it” while the EU could “go whistle” for a big British exit payment made way for Friday’s show of victorious EU determination, as the 27 other EU leaders acknowledged “sufficient progress” had been made to start discussing a trade deal and future relations with the U.K. A payment of some $75.6 billion was as good as assured, full respect for the rights of EU citizens in Britain was well on its way and there was a commitment that the border between the EU’s Ireland and the U.K.’s Northern Ireland would remain transparent.

Somehow the all-so-often fractious EU had stood united, while Britain’s Conservative government bickered, fought and lost a parliamentary majority before May was summoned to Brussels last week to shake hands on an outline deal that had many pro-Brexit Britons grumbling.

With so little time left before Brexit is to take place, negotiators face a tight deadline to carve out a wideranging separation deal.

EU Council president Donald Tusk said a deal by March 2019 is “still realistic and of course dramatically difficult. For sure, the second phase will be more demanding, more challenging than the first phase.”

EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said he expected “real negotiations” on trade to start in March, giving negotiators little more than eight months to wrap up, since the EU legislature and the EU member states will need to get the necessary approvals in time for the scheduled Brexit day on March 29, 2019.

To give Britain more time, a transition of about two years is expected to be an early point of discussion.