The conclusion of a compromise over the Brexit has raised “a new sense of optimism” in the ongoing negotiations towards a trade market deal between London and Brussels, British Prime Minister Theresa May believes. “True, nothing is agreed until everything is not agreed,” according to an extract of the speech that Mrs. May is to deliver before the House of Commons Monday, and which her Office has transmitted. “But there is, I believe, a new sense of optimism now in the talks.”
The European Commission and the United Kingdom have finally reached a consensus over the terms of their divorce, after months of hard talks, thus opening the way to commercial discussions about the post Brexit future, scheduled to take place at the end of March 2019.
“It’s not about hard or soft Brexit,” according to Theresa May’s address. “The arrangements which we have approved so that we may move towards the second phase of negotiations are fully in line with the principles and objectives which I have laid down in my Florence and Lancaster House speeches,” in September and January 2017 respectively, she assures. She had then pleaded for her country’s withdrawal from the European Single Market at the end of a transition period of about two years.
Theresa May said that she “strongly” hoped that the Friday settlement will be confirmed by the EU Heads of State and of Government during a European summit to be held on 15 December, so that it might be possible to focus on the building up of “new and ambitious economic and security relations” between London and the European Union.
The Brussels Times
