The British voice of May and the EU has restored confidence to Brexit

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Theresa May, and other European leaders, said Thursday that they were confident that they could get an agreement on Brexit, saying that "we are going to get it right. they worked hard to overcome the same obstacles that had paralyzed the negotiations a few days ago.

Less than six months before Britain leaves the EU as part of its biggest policy change for more than 40 years, both parties disagree on how to deal with their only land border, between the United States and the United States. British province of Northern Ireland and Ireland.

The problem is centered on what is called a "safety net" – an insurance policy guaranteeing that there will be no return to a hard border on the border. island of Ireland, former focal point of sectarian tensions, if a future trading relationship is not in place in time.

In an attempt to unblock the talks, May had already indicated that she would consider extending a so-called transition period "after a few months" after Britain's departure from the European Union in March, decision that his detractors have described as treason, but that the bloc hailed.

Extending the transition period could mean that if a future partnership is not ready, it would not need to trigger security, which until now was not desirable for the British side. However, even an extension would not dispel the EU's insistence that such reinforcement be agreed to guarantee agreement.

For the moment, both parties seemed to be happy to propose a solution to this problem a little further.

"We are all working, we are intensifying work on these remaining issues," May said at a press conference after a two-day summit in Brussels.

"What the leaders around the table tell me … since I arrived in Brussels yesterday, it's a very real feeling that people want this deal to be concluded."

"I am convinced that we can achieve this good deal."

TRANSITION

European leaders have also expressed optimism after the closing of the last summit in Salzburg, Austria, and May has irritated the fact that the EU has criticized its plans for Brexit in a particularly damaging way.

The President of the EU Council, Donald Tusk, described the atmosphere as much better than that of Salzburg. "What I feel today is that we are closer to the final solutions and the agreement," he said at a press conference.

Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, said: "It will be done."

But behind the positive noises, one party will have to compromise to find a way, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, to "break the circle" of the northern Irish border.

Arriving on the second day of the summit, May said that a "new idea" had emerged, an idea to extend the transition phase beyond December 2020 that had sparked the outcry among some Brexit supporters back to Britain.

May and a senior British government official have tried to downplay the importance of examining this extension, claiming that it had "been the subject of negotiations only in recent days" and that it was one of the many options for moving the negotiations forward. London desperately wants to see.

And a French official said that any extension would be subject to conditions – it would not be automatic, the decision would be made later and the leaders of the 27 other EU countries would have to accept it, probably at l & # 39; unanimously.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar summed up the situation by saying that there are still big gaps between the two sides.

"Many things have been agreed but there are still big gaps both in terms of the shape of the future relationship and also the protocol on Northern Ireland and Ireland and the backstop" he told the press.