UK, EU reach deal to move ahead with Brexit talks

By Ahmet Gurhan Kartal

LONDON (AA) - The U.K. and the EU appeared to have agreed to move ahead with Brexit negotiations Friday morning to a second phase which will shape future trade relations between them.

“Today I am hopeful that we are now all moving towards the second phase of these challenging negotiations,” EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said.

Speaking at a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May who flew out to Brussels in early hours of Friday morning, Juncker said there had been compromises on both sides.

Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, later confirmed he was recommending to move on with the talks, saying Friday’s agreement is a “personal success” for May.

“The most difficult challenge is still ahead,” he warned.

He said the parties should start negotiating a transition period, which the U.K. has requested be for two years.

In return for that, the U.K. will need to respect EU laws, including new legislation, budgetary decisions and judiciary oversight, he said.

“I very much welcome the prospect of moving ahead to the next phase of the Brexit talks on trade and security,” May tweeted.

Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney said they “have [had] a good outcome, this has been a difficult negotiation, I hope both sides are happy with what we have”.

The agreement came after painstaking work following a delay caused by an objection from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in Northern Ireland earlier this week.

An earlier draft agreement suggested a “regulatory alignment” for Northern Ireland with the EU in a bid to avoid a hard border in Ireland – one of the key sticking points of the Brexit talks.

“The work that has been done on negotiations ... is gradually leading us to common sense,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told France Inter radio.“ There was no desire on our part, on the part of the Europeans, to exclude of Britain from any discussion and negotiation.

"On the other hand, we wanted the conditions of the withdrawal to be clearly defined so that we could move on to another phase. That’s what’s going to happen now, I hope.”​

The U.K. is set to leave the bloc in March 2019.