Brexit: EU leaders approve strategy for trade talks with Britain

Deal on transition period also signed off at European Council summit

The leaders of the 27 remaining EU countries have formally signed off their negotiating guidelines for the next phase of Brexit talks – paving the way for discussions about the bloc’s future relationship with Britain for the first time.

Leaders approved the strategy on Friday morning at a meeting in Brussels, on the second day of the European Council summit. They also officially approved the deal struck between David Davis and Michel Barnier earlier this week about the transition period.

The trade talk guidelines, which weigh in at a brief six and a half pages, state that the UK has made frictions in trade inevitable by ruling out membership of the single market and customs union. The leaders leave the door open to Britain changing its mind about these issues, however.

The guidelines state that the EU is determined “to have as close as possible a partnership with the UK in the future” and that this should cover “trade and economic cooperation as well as other areas, in particular the fight against terrorism and international crime, as well as security, defence and foreign policy”.

Theresa May had been meeting with the 27 prime ministers and presidents that morning to discuss trade with the United States. Over dinner the night before Ms May had said she hoped progress in talks earlier this week would create a “new dynamic” that would allow issues like the Irish border to be solved.

Britain should be given a “balanced, ambitious and wide-ranging free trade agreement” but “such an agreement cannot however offer the same benefits as membership”, they say.

On her way out of the summit before heading back to London on Friday morning, Ms May said: “I welcome the fact that the EU Council this morning has agreed the details of the implementation period – that period after we leave the EU next March 2019 until the end of December 2020.

“This gives certainty to people and businesses, it gives them clarity to plan for their future, and it ensures that they will only have to make one adjustment, one change, when we enter into the new relationship with the European Union in the future.

“The council has also endorsed its guidelines for our negotiations for that future relationship. I believe there’s a new dynamic now in the negotiations. I believe we’re approaching this with a spirit of cooperation, with a spirit of opportunity for the future as well and we will now be sitting down and determining those workable solutions for Northern Ireland but also our future security partnership and economic partnership.

“I believe it is in the best interests of the UK and the EU that we get a deal that is in the best interests of both.”

The transition deal signed off by leaders gives the UK a 21-month period after Brexit in which it will follow EU rules and implement new ones, without any say in drawing them up.

The UK will not have any representation at EU level, but will be allowed to negotiate its own trade deals with other countries. In return it has accepted full free movement rights for citizens who arrive in Britain during the period.

Despite the progress the issue of Northern Ireland is still dogging talks, however, with the EU stating that no deal can be made until the issue is settled.