Brexit deal is on, says UK’s May

SIGN OFF ON PLANS ON THE CARDS

Prime Minister Theresa May hailed “a new sense of optimism” in Brexit talks yesterday, telling parliament that Britain and the European Union (EU) should sign off on a deal at a summit this week “to move forward together” to discuss future trade ties.

May, weakened after losing her Conservatives’ parliamentary majority at a June election, rescued an agreement last week to move the negotiations to unravel more than 40 years of union on to their second phase, after easing the concerns of her Northern Irish allies over a border with EU member Ireland.

But the discussion of Britain’s trade relationship with the EU after Brexit contains many pitfalls and could widen differences among her top team of ministers, or Cabinet, over how Britain should look after it leaves the bloc.

May took to task those who doubted that she could move the talks beyond the initial stage of agreeing terms on how much Britain should pay, citizens’ rights and the border between the British province of Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland.

“I have always been clear that this was never going to be an easy process. It has required give and take for the UK and the EU to move forward together. And that is what we have done,” she said. “Of course, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.

“But there is, I believe, a new sense of optimism now in the talks and I fully expect that we will confirm the arrangements I have set out today in the European Council later this week,” she said.

May will head to Brussels on Thursday for a summit meeting at which she expects the leaders of the other 27 EU states to approve an assessment by negotiators that the sides have made “sufficient progress” to move on to phase two.

The deal to launch further talks looked in jeopardy a week ago when May was forced to abandon a choreographed meeting in Brussels intended to seal the deal, after her allies in Northern Ireland expressed fears she was proposing a special status for the region – out of sync with the rest of the United Kingdom.

After days of diplomacy, there was a compromise: if no Brexit deal is secured, Britain will keep “full alignment” with those rules of the EU’s single market that help cooperation between Ireland’s north and south. –