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Leaders from the EU and UK have agreed a draft text on a future relationship which is to be endorsed by EU leaders at a summit this weekend.
This is separate to the withdrawal agreement.
The document sets out plans for “an ambitious, broad, deep and flexible partnership” between the EU and UK after March 2019.
EU President Donald Tusk tweeted that the document had been agreed at negotiators level and agreed in principle at political level.
I have just sent to EU27 a draft Political Declaration on the Future Relationship between EU and UK. The Commission President has informed me that it has been agreed at negotiators’ level and agreed in principle at political level, subject to the endorsement of the Leaders.
— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) November 22, 2018
The document is 26 pages, slightly smaller than the 585-page draft Withdrawal Agreement.
It sets out ambitions for trade that is as frictionless as possible and that the backstop arrangement could be replaced by a subsequent agreement that would still avoid the presence of a hard border on the island of Ireland.
A special meeting of the European Council takes place this Sunday in Brussels where it is hoped EU27 leaders will endorse the draft withdrawal agreement and now this future relationship text.
"The agreement we’ve reached is between the UK and the European Commission – it is now up to the 27 leaders of the other EU member states to examine this agreement in the days leading up to the special EU Council meeting on Sunday," British Prime Minister Theresa May said in a statement on Thursday.
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