The post you are reporting:
Courtesy of the Times.
European Union Brexit negotiators have told national diplomats in Brussels that a deal to solve the Irish border issue is now “very close”. After talks yesterday between Leo Varadkar, the Irish prime minister, and Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, sources in the commission told Reuters that both sides were closing in on an agreement. The basis of a deal was understood to centre around proposals, revealed by The Times on Tuesday, that are due to be formally tabled by the British side imminently. Under the plan the whole of the UK would remain within an EU-wide single customs regime until the technology exists to ensure no hard border in Ireland.
Northern Ireland would diverge from Britain and follow single market regulations that cover the sale of goods crossing the border. The government is insisting that this would have to be agreed by the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly, if and when it is reinstated. Both sides want to have the basis of an agreement in place in time for a summit of EU leaders the week after next. A member of Mr Barnier’s team briefed diplomats of the 27 states remaining in the bloc on latest developments yesterday afternoon. That person said that progress was also being made on other outstanding issues, including the policing of any agreement and protecting goods from special origins, according to the sources.
The source said their was openness in principle to a planned British proposal on the emergency Irish border fix but that it has not yet arrived in writing from London and would need to be carefully analysed once it did. Spain, sitting just north of Gibraltar, which will leave the EU along with Britain, and Cyprus were briefed on talks with London over two separate protocols that would be added to any withdrawal deal, the sources said. A Brexit department spokesman said that the government would “set out our alternative that preserves the integrity of the UK” but did not say when or if it would be made public. The spokesman said: “It will be in line with the commitments we made back in December — including the commitment that no new regulatory barriers should be created between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK unless the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly agree.”