EU, Great Britain closer to deal before summit

BRUSSELS» The European Union and Great Britain inched closer to a Brexit deal Wednesday, with the leaders of France and Germany saying they expected an agreement could be sealed within a day at an EU summit.

Positive vibes radiated from French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a joint news conference in Toulouse, France.

Merkel told reporters that negotiations were “in the final stretch.” Macron said: “I want to believe that a deal is being finalized and that we can approve it” Thursday, when EU leaders are scheduled to meet with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in Brussels. Differences between the two sides remained but were narrowing.

“Good progress, and work is ongoing,” EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told reporters Wednesday night as he prepared to brief the EU Parliament’s Brexit steering group.

Johnson, meanwhile, likened Brexit to climbing Mount Everest, saying the summit was in sight, though still shrouded in clouds.

Brexit negotiations have been here before — seemingly closing in on a deal that is dashed at the last moment. But with Great Britain’s Oct. 31 departure date on the horizon and only hours to go before the EU leaders’ summit, hopes were increasingly turning toward getting a broad political commitment, with the full legal details to be hammered out later. That could mean another EU summit on Brexit before the end of this month.

Negotiators were locked inside EU headquarters, with few details leaking out. Wild movements in the British pound Wednesday underscored the uncertainty over what, if anything, might finally be decided.

Meetings between Barnier and key EU legislators as well as with ambassadors of the member nations were rescheduled for the evening — an indication there was still momentum in the ongoing talks among technical teams from both sides.

The focus of recent talks has been the thorniest component of a deal: How goods and people will flow across the land border between EU member Ire

land and Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K.

So far, all plans to keep an open and nearly invisible border between the two have hit a brick wall of opposition from Johnson’s key Northern Irish ally, the Democratic Unionist Party. Leaders from the party met several times with the British prime minister Wednesday as he tried to win their support. Without it, any Brexit deal is likely to be rejected by Great Britain’s Parliament — which has already voted down prospective deals three times.

Johnson told Conservative Party lawmakers Wednesday that he believed a deal was close.

Legislator Bim Afolami quoted the prime minister as saying “the summit is in sight, but it is shrouded in cloud. But we can get there.”

Northern Ireland is not the only issue. The eventual withdrawal agreement will be a legal treaty that also lays out other aspects of the U.K.’s departure — including issues such as the divorce bill Great Britain must pay to leave and the rights of U.K. and EU citizens living in each other’s territories. It will set up a transition period in which relations would remain as they are now at least until the end of 2020, to give people and businesses time to adjust to new rules.

But the agreement will likely leave many questions about the future unanswered, and Great Britain’s departure is sure to be followed by years of negotiations on trade and other issues.

Even if a deal is struck this week, moves in the British Parliament could still mean another delay to the U.K.’s planned Oct. 31 departure.