EU united on Brexit demands

Leaders back divorce terms – and open the door to Northern Ireland to leave the UK and join the bloc.

European Union leaders have endorsed a stiff set of divorce terms for Britain, rejoicing in a rare show of unity in adversity but well aware that this could start to fray once negotiations begin.

Meeting for the first time yesterday since British Prime Minister Theresa May formally triggered a two-year countdown to Brexit in late March, the 27 other EU leaders lost little time over a lunch in Brussels in approving an eightpage set of negotiating guidelines hammered out by their diplomats over the past month.

These bind Michel Barnier, their chief negotiator, to seek a deal that secures the rights of 3 million EU expatriates living in Britain, ensure London pays tens of billions of euros Brussels thinks it will be owed, and avoids destabilising peace by creating a hard EUUnited Kingdom border across the island of Ireland.

They also rule out discussing the free trade deal May wants until they see progress on agreeing those key withdrawal terms.

In a mark of how last year’s Brexit vote has called into question the unity of the UK itself, the EU leaders have offered Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny a pledge that if Northern Ireland, which voted against Brexit, ever unites with his country, it will automatically become an EU member.

The 1998 Good Friday Agreement to end violence in the north foresees the holding of referendums on both sides of the Irish border on uniting the island if London and Dublin see public support for such a change.

Elections in Northern Ireland in March denied pro-British unionists a majority in the province for the first time since Ireland was partitioned in 1921, further emboldening Irish nationalists.

Another contentious issue will be which countries scoop the prizes of hosting two EU agencies set to be moved from London, the European Medicines Agency and the European Banking Authority.

‘‘We are remarkably united,’’ one national leader said. ‘‘But then, it’s always easy to be united on what you want before you start negotiating.’’

Among possible differences, the priorities of poorer eastern European states are to secure residency rights for their many workers in Britain, and British money for the EU budget.

The Brexit vote has raised fears of further breakups at the hands of nationalists like French far-right leader Marine Le Pen. The EU sees it as vital that Britain not be seen to profit from Brexit, to avoid encouraging other states to follow suit.

However, some officials are also voicing concern that the process of weaving demands into the negotiating text could risk souring the atmosphere with May, who expects to start talks shortly after the British general election she has called for June 8.

Senior officials in Brussels believe the risk of a breakdown in talks that could see Britain simply walk out into a chaotic legal limbo in March 2019 has diminished since May wrote to Tusk on March 29 in terms recognising that she would have to compromise.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, facing her own election in September, warned Britain this week against lingering ‘‘illusions’’ of how much access it would retain to EU markets. Some diplomats also fear that the tone of EU negotiating demands could sound too aggressive and create a popular backlash in Britain that might then make it hard for May to agree a deal.