The issue of money is the most fundamental sticking issue that is causing a policy dilemma in the Brexit talks. The Europeans are demanding 60 billion Euros which they say is Britain portion of its dues to the EU agreed while it was an EU member. Britain has conceded that it will pay 20 billion Euros to cover Its EU budget round in return for a status quo transition deal over a 2 year period. How flexible the EU are willing to be on this issue will decide to what extent the Brexit talks have a fruitful outcome or not. There will have to be compromise on both sides of the channel with regards to payments if a Comprehensive deal is to be made.
Much progress has been made on the issue of citizens’ rights and the issue of northern Ireland yet similarly the EU is effectively bartering over the various trade off’s in its own negotiating hand such as the rights of British and EU citizens in both the EU and the UK. In recent days the PM has guaranteed that all EU citizens who travel to the UK up to the 2019 cut off period can stay indefinitely and this is a significant olive branch that has been offered to the EU. It is in both the EU’s and the UK’s interest to move forward and use this as momentum to achieve concrete results through hard negotiations. The EU has taken the position that good progress has been made although much of the future progress of this issue is tied up with the Talks moving on to the trade as the issue of customs cannot be approached till then
When it comes to the transition phase the issue will be how long does the UK fall under the EU set of Laws and regulation during the period of Transition. How much oversight will the EU have for the period of the Transition phase. Agreeing is crucial to the completing the elements of the final deal after the Transition period has ended. Furthermore it will allow more time for talks on Trade to be secured and the future partnership with the EU to develop after the current period and phase of difficult negotiations that will come to a head in December where the PM will know if talks can move on to a transitional phase and trade talks.
The big issues raised here will be have confronted within the next 2 months as there will be no further progress in the Brexit negotiations, pragmatism , hard work and solid negotiating will be of paramount importance to maintain. An olive branch may be offered to Theresa May in the form of a draft wording in the recent Brussels summit that mentions acceleration of talks to that of trade and the future relationship between that of the UK and the EU if there is to be an amicable separation
The Reformist 