UK, EU hail Brexit breakthrough despite unresolved questions
BRUSSELS — Britain and the European Union hailed a breakthrough Friday that allows them to begin talks on their post-Brexit relations without answering some key questions about how their divorce will play out.
With pressure building on British Prime Minister Theresa May’s fragile government, the sides agreed on the last sticking point in Britain’s divorce terms: the border between EU member Ireland and the United Kingdom’s Northern Ireland.
They both accepted that the border must remain open once Britain leaves the bloc in 2019, although they left it unclear how that would happen in practice. After a hectic night of phone diplomacy, the Northern Ireland party blocking a deal __ and propping up May’s Conservative government — said it was satisfied.
Negotiators also reached a broad agreement on the other divorce terms, which the EU had required before it would allow the talks to move on to the weighty questions of future relations, including trade, which had been keeping businesses and financial markets on edge.