Breakthrough in Brexit deal clears way for trade talks

Negotiators have broken months of deadlock over the terms of Britain’s departure from the EU, clearing the way for trade talks between the two.

European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker announced the deal early on Friday after the final wrinkle on the status of the Irish border was ironed out.

The deal, detailed in a 15page document, follows a week of frantic negotiations after an earlier agreement was scrapped amid chaos on Monday arising from disagreements within the UK government over the border issue.

“Prime minister Theresa May has assured me that it has the backing of the UK government. On that basis I believe we have made the breakthrough we needed,” Mr Juncker said.

Mrs May, who flew to Brussels on Friday to announce the deal, said that the talks had delivered “a hard-won agreement in all our interests”.

But the deal represents the conclusion of only the first stage of the talks, with months of difficult negotiations to come before Britain leaves the bloc in March 2019.

Three key issues have been largely resolved: the question of how much the UK will pay to settle its commitments; the fate of EU citizens living in the UK; and the Irish border issue.

The settlement was estimated by senior British officials at £35 billion (Dh172.15bn) to £39bn – less than figures mooted over the past month, but still disappointing hardline pro-Brexit campaigners who said that Britain should pay nothing.

Mrs May secured the agreement of the Irish prime minister and members of her own government during a series of calls from Downing Street.

Her government is propped up by the support of a Northern Irish party. It had scuppered last week’s talks because of concerns that any deal would lead to a weakening of the link between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, Arlene Foster, said: “For me it means there’s no red line down the Irish Sea. We have the clear confirmation that the entirety of the UK is leaving the European Union, the single market and the Customs union. That’s a very important statement to have.”

The government of EU-member the Republic of Ireland had expressed concerns that any deal would lead to a return of checkpoints and a hard border that were swept away by a 1998 agreement, ending three decades of conflict.

“We will guarantee there will be no hard border,” Mrs May said.

Securing the deal will be a relief to the prime minister, who faced anger from her own party after Monday’s fiasco.

It followed her disastrous decision to call national elections this year, which left her in a weakened position and dependent on the votes of the unionist party to survive.

Mr Juncker said that the decision on whether to move forward to talks on trade and the transition to a post-Brexit relationship was in the hands of the leaders of the 27 other EU nations, meeting in Brussels at a European Council summit on Thursday. But he said he was confident they would do so.

“I will always be sad about this development, but now we must start looking to the future – a future in which the UK will remain a close friend and ally,” Mr Juncker said.

UK businesses welcomed the agreement after high-profile companies warned that they could trigger plans to move staff and premises out of the UK if no progress had been made. The pound rose on the news of the deal.

The deal was also welcomed by senior cabinet members who promoted Brexit in the run-up to last year’s referendum, but described as a betrayal by senior members of the campaign to leave the EU.

Arron Banks, the millionaire founder of the Leave EU campaign, said the agreement had been forged by a “traitorous, lily-livered embarrassment of a prime minister”.

Three key issues have been resolved: the UK’s settlement; the fate of EU citizens in Britain; and the Northern Irish border