May arrives in Brussels as Irish border deal talks progress

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British Prime Minister Theresa May arrived in Brussels early Friday morning for a crunch meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, arriving at the European Commission headquarters before 7 a.m. after a night of discussions in London.

A deal between the United Kingdom and Ireland on how to run their post-Brexit Irish land border is believed to be close, following the late collapse of an agreement on Monday.

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May has been scrambling to clinch a deal on the new UK-EU land border in Ireland that is acceptable to the European Union, Dublin, her own lawmakers and Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, which keeps her government in power.

Later in the week, on Thursday, the political editor of the BBC said the leadership of the DUP in Belfast had not signed off on the border deal, meaning it could yet stumble, but May continued to plan to meet Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk early on Friday in Brussels to finalize the agreement.

Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May is welcomed by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker at the EC headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on December 4, 2017. /Reuters Photo

The political editor of Sky News, quoting a DUP source, said the party would continue to work on the border issue on Friday.

Moving to talks about trade and a Brexit transition are crucial for the future of May's premiership, and to keep trade flowing between the world’s biggest trading bloc and its sixth largest national economy after Britain leaves on March 29, 2019.

But the EU will only move to trade talks if there is enough progress on three key issues: the money Britain must pay to the EU; rights for EU citizens in Britain and British citizens in the EU; and how to avoid a hard border with Ireland.

As speculation swirled about whether London, Dublin and Brussels were about to clinch a border deal, European Council President Donald Tusk's office said he would brief reporters at 0650 GMT on Friday before departing for Hungary.

The EU says May has an effective deadline of Sunday night if she wants to seal a deal and hope to have agreement on trade talks in time for the EU summit on December 14-15.

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Source(s): Reuters