The U.K.’s Brexit proposal needs to “be reworked and further negotiated” but there are signs of progress, European Council President Donald Tusk said today.
“The Brexit negotiations are entering the decisive phase,” Tusk said ahead of an informal summit of EU leaders in Salzburg, Austria. “Various scenarios are still possible today.”
Tusk said some elements of Prime Minister May’s latest plan, put forward following agreement by her Cabinet at her country residence Chequers in July, indicate “positive evolution in the U.K.’s approach” and “a will to minimize the negative effects of Brexit.” Tusk specifically highlighted “the readiness to cooperate closely in the area of security and foreign policy.”
“Today there is perhaps more hope but there is surely less and less time,” he said. “Therefore, every day that is left, we must use for talks.”
Most of the Brexit withdrawal agreement has now been agreed but the big sticking point is how to maintain a frictionless border on the island of Ireland. Tusk said that in terms of “the Irish question or the framework for economic cooperation, the U.K.’s proposals will need to be reworked and further negotiated.”
Brussels wants to keep Northern Ireland tightly aligned to Europe, and have customs checks between the province and the rest of Britain, while May opposes any solution that she says would split the U.K. down the middle. In an op-ed in the German daily Die Welt, published today, the U.K. prime minister repeated her claim that Brussels’ position is “unacceptable.”
However, Tusk said he is still planning on finalizing the talks “this autumn” and would therefore “propose calling an additional summit around the mid of November.”