Brexit transition deal struck after Brussels talks

Brexit negotiators Michel Barnier and David Davis said they had agreed terms for a transition period, calling the announcement a “decisive step”, the BBC reported.

Just days after British Brexit leader Jacob Rees-Mogg warned the EU was using Ulster to keep the United Kingdom in the single market, Barnier euphemistically referred to the “backstop solution” to Ireland – keeping Britain’s westernmost region in the customs union.

The future of Ireland’s border with Northern Ireland – which will be the EU’s only major land border with Britain after Brexit – was widely seen as the biggest obstacle to an agreement on a 21-month transition deal to avoid a “cliff edge” Brexit.

The UK has struck a deal on the terms of the Brexit transition period after making a series of concessions to Brussels and accepting a “back stop” plan of keeping Northern Ireland under European Union law to avoid a hard border with the Republic of Ireland.

Barnier will this week discuss the agreement with EU foreign ministers, the European Commission and on Friday, EU heads of government, apart from UK Prime MInister Theresa May who is not invited.

It brings a welcome gift of time for firms on both sides.

Alongside him, British envoy David Davis said the progress made is a “significant step” toward a final deal.

Davis talked up the future of EU-British trade relations because they would start from similar rules, standards and tariffs, even though no pact can start until after 2020.

The two sides reached a “total agreement” on how to put into legal terms the political agreement reached in December on two of Brexit’s three main issues, citizens’ rights and the financial settlement.

Nevertheless it will preserve the benefits, the advantages of the single market and the customs union… and will therefore be required to respect all the European rules just like all member states do.

However, according to other countries, the agreements with London should remain more general in order to ensure unity and give Michel Barnier more flexibility, as the British government’s position also changes.

Nothing is agreed until everything’s agreed – and the inability to find a workable solution acceptable to all sides on the hard-border question makes it appear that nothing’s agreed at all.

Simon Coveney, the Irish deputy prime minister, said this morning negotiations on the border were “moving forward”.

Versus the euro, sterling rose 0.8 percent to 87.46 pence per euro, its strongest since February 8. Negotiations on that will not start until next month, once Friday’s European Union summit gives Barnier the go-ahead. An worldwide agreement… we all need precision, and legal certainty which pertains to any such global agreement.

He also confirmed the regulatory alignment solution for Ireland will be part of withdrawal agreement as a backstop option but added that it will apply unless another solution is found.

More troublingly for May’s prospects of steering the treaty through parliament, her own party’s leader in Scotland, fierce Brexit critic Ruth Davidson, said the transition was a bad deal – for letting the European Union retain power over British fishing grounds.