BRUSSELS — The European Union’s Brexit negotiator urged the British government Tuesday to keep up the momentum in negotiations on leaving the bloc if it wants the talks to advance to a new phase in December.
“It’s very important to maintain this constructive dynamic in the coming two months,” Michel Barnier told reporters in Luxembourg.
Barnier held dinner talks Monday with British Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker as London seeks to broaden the Brexit negotiations, around a year before the highly technical and complex talks must be completed to leave time for parliaments to endorse any agreement.
The EU says it will only discuss future relations with Britain once “sufficient progress” has been made on the divorce bill, the rights of citizens hit by Brexit and the status of the Northern Ireland-Ireland border. May believes these issues are deeply linked to future EU-U.K. relations, and that it all should be discussed as a package. EU leaders are unlikely to broaden the talks at their two-day summit starting Thursday but might do so when they meet again in Brussels in December. (AP)