U.K. Reaches Brexit Transition Deal With EU

LONDON — British and European Union negotiators on Monday agreed on the terms of a 21-month transition period to keep Britain inside Europe’s economic structures and to avoid an economically damaging “cliff edge” when the country formally departs the bloc next March.

The transition accord was announced Monday at a news conference in Brussels by David Davis, Britain’s main negotiator, and his EU counterpart, Michel Barnier, who described it as a “decisive step” toward an orderly withdrawal, or Brexit.

The deal, however, depends on a broader agreement on Britain’s withdrawal, which is to be finalized this year but is by no means certain. One of the main sticking points in those talks has been the border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and Ireland, which will remain in the European Union.

To achieve the transition accord, the British government retreated from an earlier pledge and conceded that EU citizens who arrived in Britain during the transition period would have the same rights as those already in the country. (Earlier this year, Prime Minister Theresa May insisted that the rights of those newcomers would be “different.”)

Talk in Britain about quitting the EU’s fisheries policy next year has also evaporated, with May accepting that the standstill transition — or “implementation period,” as she calls it — meant full compliance with current rules.

Even so, Barnier made it clear that the transition agreement could not be considered legally binding until after ratification of a wider agreement on withdrawal, which negotiators say they hope to reach in the fall. Among other issues, it would set out how the two sides intend to avoid a “hard border,” one with checkpoints, between Northern Ireland and Ireland. Such a barrier could jeopardize the two-decade-old peace process that largely ended sectarian strife in the north.

“Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,” Barnier said.

EU leaders are expected to endorse plans for the transition when they meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, clearing the way for detailed talks on a future trade relationship.

Even though it is not legally binding, the transition agreement is seen as important for May’s government, which has been eager to offer assurances to businesses to help mitigate uncertainty over Brexit. Davis said that the deal would allow companies “to plan for the future with confidence.”

That remains to be seen. Carolyn Fairbairn, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, a business lobby group, welcomed the accord as “a critical milestone.”

But Mats Persson, head of international trade at the advisory firm EY, noted that businesses faced a decision: whether to put their faith in a political agreement — and assume the transition will take place, and stop contingency planning — or to trust in legal certainty, and take nothing for granted. “I’d say a 50-50 split among businesses I speak to,” he wrote on Twitter.

During the transition, Britain will aim to complete the details of its future trade ties with the bloc, and will be under considerable time pressure.

Davis said that Britain would be able to negotiate and sign trade deals around the world during the transition period, thereby “seizing one of Brexit’s greatest opportunities.” Yet, most experts say such discussions generally take longer, and new partners would first want to know the details of Britain’s new trade relations with the European Union.

In Britain, meanwhile, the political situation remains volatile, and the government’s ultimate intention to quit a customs union with the European Union is likely to be tested in a close vote in Parliament. Any broader deal May strikes would have to be approved by lawmakers, too.

Casting a shadow over the process is the Irish border issue, still considered the most complex problem in the negotiations, one that provoked a crisis in December before a fudged, last-minute compromise was reached. A “backstop” solution, keeping Northern Ireland within European economic structures, remains on the table even though May is unlikely to accept it.

So far, there has been no definitive progress on Britain’s favored alternatives and, in a Twitter post, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said there would be “no backsliding” on the Irish border issue. Keir Starmer, the opposition Labour Party’s spokesman on Brexit, called on the government to “prioritize negotiating a final agreement that protects jobs, the economy and guarantees there will be no hard border in Northern Ireland.”

“This agreement could have been signed months ago, but ministers wasted time fighting among themselves, holding out on negotiating objectives that they have failed to achieve and pursuing their reckless red lines,” Starmer added.

Meanwhile, Nigel Farage, former leader of the U.K. Independence Party and a supporter of a clean break with the bloc, described May as “Theresa the Appeaser.”

In addition to the Brexit negotiations, Brussels also hosted British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on Monday as he urged his EU counterparts and NATO officials to keep solidarity with Britain over the poisoning of Sergei V. Skripal, a former Russian spy, and his daughter.

Johnson, who has accused Russia of violating international agreements banning chemical weapons by creating and stockpiling the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok, which Britain says was used to poison the Skripals, said that Russian denials of responsibility were “increasingly absurd.”

He said that Moscow was using “a classic Russian strategy of trying to conceal the needle of truth in a haystack of lies and obfuscation,” adding, “They’re not fooling anybody anymore.”

But given hesitations by Greece and some other countries, which demanded more proof of Russian responsibility, the European ministers finally issued a relatively weak statement that did not contain any new sanctions against Moscow.

The ministers expressed “unqualified solidarity” with Britain, but did not endorse Britain’s conclusion that Russia was responsible, instead calling on Russia to provide answers.

They called on Russia “to address urgently the questions raised by the U.K. and the international community and to provide immediate, full and complete disclosure of its Novichok program.”