Too soon to move to next phase of Brexit talks — European Parliament

On the other main issues of Northern Ireland and the financial settlement, Mr Davis again said constructive work had been done – but added that the United Kingdom was not at the stage of clarifying which financial commitments it accepted would need to be paid.

– Latest round of Brexit talks concludes in Brussels, with the UK’s Davis saying considerable progress has been made on issues that matter.

Praising Mrs May’s speech in Florence last week, in which she sought to map out the route to Brexit, Mr Tusk said Britain was now being more “realistic” in its approach.

Both sides agreed that UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s speech in Florence earlier this week had taken some of the tension out of negotiations around the financial settlement.

In a bid to unblock the divorce talks, along with her words on settling budget commitments, May also offered a concession to European Union concerns that the rights of their 3 million citizens living in Britain would be protected after Brexit.

But at a joint press conference, Barnier said that although the speech had finally created a “good dynamic”, there were still major differences which would need to be ironed out – such as the rights of future citizens, and the UK’s “divorce bill”.

Mr Barnier said the speech helped to “create clarity on some points” but continued: “On others, however, more work remains to be done and we are not there yet”. His closing appraisal echoed exactly his remarks at the start of the third round – he spoke of his “concern” about the lack of advancement on the three major issues surrounding the UK’s exit from the bloc: European Union citizens’ rights, the UK’s financial settlement, and the border (or lack thereof) between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The text also says the U.K.’s position paper on the Northern Irish border “fall short” of numerous EU’s demands, including guarantees from the U.K side of its “full compliance” with the Good Friday peace agreement.

Davis said “we are not yet at the stage of specifying what these commitments are – that will have to come later”.

“We have had a constructive week, yes, but we are not yet there in terms of achieving suiffocent progress”.

LONDON – Brexit talks have seen “important progress” but it could still be “weeks or even months” until they can move onto the next stage, according to the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.

The EU insists it won’t discuss future relationships until it has guarantees on Britain’s outstanding financial commitments, on the rights of more than 4 million EU and British citizens affected by Brexit and on the status of the Irish border.

The draft calls on European Union leaders to postpone the assessment on whether sufficient progress has been made, unless a major breakthrough happens by October.

More than a year since Britons voted to go, and six months after London’s Brexit announcement, the talks are still in a preliminary phase.

Britain is due to leave the bloc in March 2019.