EU’s talks with UK over Brexit move to next stage

The EU agreed on Friday to move to the next stage of Brexit talks with Britain, clearing the way for complex discussions over trade and border issues.

EU leaders agreed at a meeting in Brussels that sufficient progress had been made on key topics such as the Irish border and the divorce bill that Britain needs to pay to end more than 40 years within the bloc.

“EU leaders agree to move on to the second phase of Brexit talks. Congratulations, PM Theresa May,” said European Council president Donald Tusk, who chairs EU summits.

In response Mrs May, who was not allowed to be part of the discussions, said the decision was an important step to ensuring a “smooth and orderly” Brexit.

Despite the warm words after months of often rancorous disputes, EU leaders warned that major problems remained before Britain left the 28-nation union in March 2019.

Austrian chancellor Christian Kern said that even a primary school student could see difficulties over the state of the UK’s only land border with the EU, on Ireland.

Negotiations on issues such as trade could only go ahead if commitments during the first phase are respected and “translated faithfully into legal terms as quickly as possible”, a document released by the European Council showed.

The comments follow a spat this week when Britain’s chief negotiator appeared ready to back out of commitments agreed to after talks.

While Mrs May may have secured agreement with fellow EU leaders, she faces divisions within her party.

One prominent Conservative member, Dominic Grieve, has received death threats after leading a parliamentary rebellion that inflicted the prime minister’s first defeat on Brexit this week.

The EU is willing to start talks next month on a twoyear transition period to ease Britain out after March 2019, but has asked for more details from Westminster on what it wants before it will open trade negotiations from March of next year.

The document released on Friday said the second phase of the talks related only to “transition and the framework for the future relationship” rather than the detail of a trade deal.

EU officials are divided

We made clear that Theresa May has made an offer that should allow us to say that we have seen sufficient progress ANGELA MERKEL German chancellor

over whether Britain should continue to receive the full economic benefits of EU membership during a transition after it leaves, even if it loses political representation in Brussels.

German chancellor Angela Merkel gave her stamp of approval, but warned that time was running out.

“We made clear that Theresa May has made an offer that should allow us to say that we have seen sufficient progress,” Mrs Merkel said. “Nevertheless, there are still a lot of problems to solve. And time is of the essence.”

Britain will remain under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and be required to allow freedom of movement during any transition period, under guidelines released by the European Council.