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Bloomberg
The UK Cabinet will discuss Brexit on Tuesday, but Prime Minister Theresa May probably won’t ask ministers to approve the terms of a deal, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The premier is likely to update ministers on the past two weeks’ of technical negotiations that have been taking place at a less senior level, the person said.
The UK and European Union pushed back against weekend newspaper reports a divorce deal is in the bag.
But both sides also held open the possibility that a special summit could be called in November to get an agreement signed, and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said it was willing to consider the latest UK proposal.
May’s team hopes to sign a deal with the EU later this month, but the bloc won’t call the meeting until it’s sure it won’t be another futile summit. An agreement in principle would be needed by the end of this week to get a summit organised for the weekend of Nov. 17-18, the dates that had been penciled in, said the person, who is familiar with the UK position.
Both sides say there’s more work to do. And how to avoid a border on the island of Ireland, without putting up barriers between Northern Ireland and the British mainland, remains the stumbling block.
The UK is looking for a mechanism to ensure the UK isn’t tied to the EU customs regime “indefinitely†as part of the guarantee clause for the Irish border. It wants to make sure any temporary arrangement is written into the legally binding exit agreement. The UK wants to make sure there will be no possibility of a border emerging down the Irish Sea.
Varadkar said he was willing to consider a “review†mechanism proposed by the UK, as long as the UK can’t unilaterally abandon its promises. While that could be useful for May to help her sell an agreement, the Irish government is clear that it won’t sign up to the kind of review clause that Brexit hardliners want.
In private, officials on
both sides say that the next time major Brexit news breaks, it is likely to be when they have agreed to the terms of the divorce.