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It was reported that a draft Brexit document on Monday said that following the UK’s exit from the EU, the same EU regulations would be kept as they currently stand for the entire island of Ireland, ruling out a hard border and that a Brexit agreement was likely to be reached.
However, at a press conference with president of the European Commission Jean Claude Juncker and UK Prime Minister Theresa May, it was announced that no deal has been reached just yet.
Speaking at a press conference after meeting with Mrs May, Juncker said that the two had a friendly and constructive meeting.
“Despite our best efforts and significant progress we and our teams have made over the past number of days on this with all issues, it was not possible to reach a complete agreement today.
“We now have a common understanding on most of the relevant issues, with just two or three open for discussion. This will require further consultation, further negotiation and further discussion.
“We stand ready to resume the negotiations with the UK here in Brussels later this week, but I have to say that we are narrowing our positions to a huge extent today.
“I am still confident we can reach sufficient progress before the European Council on 15 December. This is not a failure. I’m very confident that we will reach agreement in the course of this week.”
The UK prime minister said that some differences do remain which require further negotiation and consultation, but said she was confident that a positive agreement would be concluded.
DUP position
Before the no deal announcement, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party Arlene Foster said that the party noted the speculation emanating from the European Union exit talks regarding the Republic of Ireland and the UK border.
However, she said that the DUP has been very clear on its position and the DUP position appears to have put any Brexit deal on hold for the time being.
“Northern Ireland must leave the EU on the same terms as the rest of the United Kingdom. We will not accept any form of regulatory divergence which separates Northern Ireland economically or politically from the rest of the United Kingdom,” Foster said.
Irish Government
On Monday evening, An Taoiseach Leo Vardkar said that he was surprised and disappointed the British government cannot proceed with what was agreed earlier on Monday.
Tweets on the Fine Gael Twitter page quoted him saying: “We want to proceed to phase two [of the negotiations] but cannot do so without a firm commitment that there will be no hard border in Ireland.
“We have no hidden agenda here, only the best interests of people in Ireland north and south.
“We had a deal today that would provide reassurance on the border and we want to ensure it remains intact.
“Theresa May has asked for more time and we are happy to allow that. This was a structured negotiation. It is our role to ensure we could agree a text in relation to the Irish people.”
Next steps
Talks on a deal are to continue later this week in Brussels between the UK and the EU. Both UK and EU leaders are confident of a deal on Brexit by the end of the week.
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