Britain and EU clinch deal to move Brexit forward
Paves the way for trade talks
The UK and the European Union (EU) struck a divorce deal on Friday that paves the way for talks on trade, easing pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May and boosting hopes of an orderly Brexit. The European Commission said “sufficient progress” had been made after London, Dublin and Belfast worked through the night to break an impasse over the status of the Irish border that had scuppered an attempt to clinch a deal on Monday.
Britain and the European Union struck a divorce deal on Friday that paves the way for talks on trade, easing pressure on Prime Minister Theresa May and boosting hopes of an orderly Brexit.
The European Commission said "sufficient progress" had been made after London, Dublin and Belfast worked through the night to break an impasse over the status of the Irish border that had scuppered an attempt to clinch a deal on Monday.
PM May, speaking in Brussels, said the deal opened the way for talks that would bring certainty to Britain's future after quitting the EU.
European Council President Donald Tusk cautioned, though, that while breaking up was hard, building a new relationship would be even harder.
"So much time has been devoted to the easier part of the task," Tusk said. "And now, to negotiate a transition arrangement and the framework for our future relationship, we have de facto less than a year."
One senior banker said the deal signalled Britain was heading towards a much closer post-Brexit relationship with the EU than many had feared, indicating that trade will keep flowing between the world's biggest trading bloc and its sixth-largest national economy.
The Commission gave its verdict in a statement after May took an early-morning flight to Brussels to announce the deal alongside Commission President JeanClaude Juncker at a news conference just after 0730 local time.
Sterling climbed to a six-month high against the euro on Friday, with one euro worth 86.9 pence, and bond yields across the euro zone rising in early Friday trade.
Against the US dollar the pound hovered near a four-day high against a backdrop of broader dollar strength.
Moving to talks about trade and a Brexit transition was crucial for the future of May's The following is a summary of a joint EU-UK report showing the agreements on three key topics: Refers to British citizens living in an EU state and other EU nationals living in UKon date of its withdrawal. It does not give British citizens a right to move from one EU state to anotherand retain the same rights, while rights for EU and British citizens lapse if they leave their original host country for five years
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Intra-day Britain promises to preserve the integrity of its own internal marketand Northern Ireland's place within it. Itsays itdoes not wanta hard borderbetween Ireland and Northern Ireland, saying itaims to avoid checks and controls there via a future EU-UK economic relationship
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Intra-day premiership which was thrown into doubt when she lost her party its majority in a snap election in June. Pro-Brexit Conservative lawmakers rallied around her "Both Parties have agreed a methodology for the financial settlement... drawn up and paid in euro." The settlementwill be calculated in terms of a percentage of the budget for 2014-2020, with Britain contributing as if ithad stayed in the EU for 2019 and 2020 and including a British rebate
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(inverted scale) after the deal, a possible signal that the party — which has been split over EU membership for generations — was not preparing to ditch her immediately.