‘Realistic’ chance of deal in 8 weeks, EU’s Barnier says

European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier once again struck an optimistic tone as he said a deal on the UK’s orderly withdrawal from the bloc is possible within eight weeks. The pound surged.

Barnier told a conference yesterday in Bled, Slovenia, that it was “realistic” and “possible” to get an agreement by the start of November to allow time for the deal to be approved by the British and European parliaments. Still, he warned that several issues, including the contentious matter of the Irish border, need to be resolved.

The pound jumped as much as 1 per cent on his comments. Barnier’s remarks are the latest in a series of more positive sounds from the EU side on the state of the negotiations. The bloc is exploring ways to make the section of the Brexit treaty on the Irish border more palatable to Britain; Germany has privately agreed to accept a less detailed agreement on future UK-EU ties; and Barnier last week told UK lawmakers there are “lots of useful things” in the government’s post-Brexit blueprint. “I think it’s possible” to get a deal by the start of November, Barnier said at the conference. “We are not far from agreement.”

A spokesman for the UK government told reporters that there’s been “positive” engagement with EU leaders and the UK is working toward a deadline of a summit in mid-October. Once a deal is reached, it has to go to the UK Parliament for approval, and lawmakers on both sides of the chamber are preparing to sabotage the agreement.

Negotiations continue in Brussels this week before the EU’s 28 leaders discuss Brexit at a summit in Salzburg, Austria, on September 20. It will be the first such discussion since June.

Sounding a note of caution, Barnier said there are still three major items necessary for the divorce deal that the two sides haven’t yet agreed on: the Irish “backstop” — an insurance policy to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland — the protection of food names linked to specific geographies, and how the deal is enforced.

“There are many issues which are not yet solved,” Barnier said. “We have to solve this issue of Ireland and some others in the next six to eight weeks.”

A spokesman for the UK government said there’s been “positive” engagement with EU leaders and the UK is working toward a deadline of a summit in mid-October.