Brexit: UK reaches agreement on Irish border paving way for negotiations

The agreement relates to the position of the Irish border after the UK finally leaves the EU, a thorny question that had held up negotiations.

According to the EU commission, “sufficient progress” had been made after London, Dublin and London worked through Thursday night to break the impasse over the status of the Irish border.

The Republic of Ireland had vowed to veto any deal creating a hard border with customs checkpoints, according to NPR.

The British prime minister Theresa May said the deal opened the way for talks and that would bring certainty after quitting the EU, Reuters reports.

In Northern Ireland, we will guarantee there will be no hard border and we uphold the Belfast agreement in doing so,” May reportedly said at joint news conference in Brussels with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

The 1998 Belfast Agreement, also known as the Good Friday Agreement ensured cross-border cooperation between the independent Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK.

“Reaching this agreement now ensures that businesses will be able to make investment decisions based on an implementation period that offers welcome certainty,” May said.

Juncker insisted that the deal still would need to be approved by EU member states, saying, “The decision on sufficient progress will be in the hands of the 27 heads of state or government,” which are to meet at a summit next Thursday.