BRUSSELS — With British Prime Minister Theresa May already back home, European Union leaders stood united Friday in saluting the outcome of the first phase of Brexit negotiations, but warned London it will be “dramatically difficult” to get a full departure deal by the March 2019 deadline.
In a stunning nine months, Britain’s early braggadocio that it could “have our cake and eat it” while the EU could “go whistle” for a big British exit payment made way for Friday’s show of victorious EU determination, as the 27 other EU leaders acknowledged “sufficient progress” had been made to start discussing a trade deal and future relations with the U.K.
A payment of some 50 billion euros ($58.9 billion) was as good as assured, full respect for the rights of EU citizens in Britain was well on its way and there was a commitment that the border between the EU’s Ireland and the U.K.’s Northern Ireland would remain transparent.
Somehow the all-so-often fractious EU had stood united, while Britain’s Conservative government bickered, fought and lost a parliamentary majority before May was summoned to Brussels last week before dawn to shake hands on an outline deal that had many pro-Brexit Britons grumbling.
Back in her U.K. constituency, May welcomed the EU announcement, saying “the U.K. and the EU have shown what can be achieved by commitment and perseverance on both sides.”
With so little time left before Brexit is to take place, negotiators face a tight deadline to carve out a wide-ranging separation deal.
EU Council President Donald Tusk said a deal by March 2019 is “still realistic and of course dramatically difficult. For sure, the second phase will be more demanding, more challenging than the first phase.”
EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he expected “real negotiations” on trade to start in March, giving negotiators a little over eight months to wrap up the deal, since the EU legislature and the EU member states will need to get the necessary approvals in time for the scheduled Brexit day on March 29, 2019.
Since March, the EU side has been marked by a high degree of cohesion, which has contrasted with the sometimes chaotic nature of the approach by May’s Conservative government.
“We got enormous support and solidarity from all of the other European countries,” said Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. “The reason why the European Union got a good outcome in the talks so far is because of European unity and we now need to maintain that.”
The coming talks could well test that cohesion in the EU, not least because of the divergent trading relationships the 27 remaining EU countries have with Britain.
May’s first priority in the next phase of talks is to establish a transition period, likely involving Britain remaining part of the single market and the customs union and probably lasting about two years.
