EU, UK agree draft deal on postBrexit relations
NEARING DIVORCE Pact within grasp and I’m determined to deliver it, says PM BRUSSELS/LONDON:
Britain and the European Union have agreed a draft text setting out a close postBrexit economic relationship, paving the way for a summit of EU leaders to endorse the deal, European Council President Donald Tusk said on Thursday.
Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29, 2019 and diplomats are trying to put the finishing touches to a divorce deal and the accompanying outline of their future relationship so that EU leaders can rubber-stamp them at a summit on Sunday.
The text, seen by Reuters, said the EU and Britain “agree to develop an ambitious, wide-ranging and balanced economic partnership.
“This partnership will be comprehensive, encompassing a free trade area as well as wider sectoral cooperation ... will be underpinned by provisions ensuring a level playing field.”
The text said the post-Brexit relationship would respect “the integrity of the Union’s Single Market and the Customs Union as well as the United Kingdom’s internal market, and recognise the development of an independent trade policy by the United Kingdom beyond this economic partnership.”
Both sides need an agreement to keep trade flowing between the world’s biggest trading bloc and the fifth largest national economy. But May has struggled to untangle nearly 46 years of membership without damaging trade or upsetting the lawmakers who will ultimately decide the fate of any deals she can secure.
Despite the hopes of financial firms in London, Britain secured no improvements to its proposed future trading relations in financial services.
The two sides reiterated they wanted to replace a provisional agreement preventing the return of extensive border checks on the island of Ireland with a permanent solution.
British Prime Minister Theresa May updated her cabinet on the state of talks by teleconference but her spokesman cautioned that no final deal can be agreed ahead of the EU summit on Sunday.
The pound rose nearly one percent to hit a day’s high of $1.2894.
The draft declaration will now be screened by national envoys of the remaining 27 EU states meeting in Brussels on Thursday.
Both the EU and Britain “should aim to deliver a level of liberalisation in trade in services well beyond the parties’ WTO commitments,” according to the draft declaration.
Theresa May said she would seal the deal on Sunday.
“The agreement we’ve reached is between the UK and the European Commission. It is now up to the 27 leaders of the other EU member states to examine this agreement in the days leading up to the special EU council meeting on Sunday,” May told reporters in Downing Street.