[Published: Monday March 19 2018]
 UK and EU hope to agree Brexit transition
Brussels 19 Mar (ANA) - David Davis is meeting the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels ahead of a crunch meeting of European Union leaders later this week. The Brexit secretary hopes to finalise details of transition arrangements that would come into force when Britain leaves the trading bloc in March 2019.
The EU wants this period - smoothing the way to the new permanent relations - to last until 31 December 2020. Both sides hope an agreement can be signed off at the EU summit this week. Theresa May, who is going to that summit on Thursday, has said the transition period should last "around two years" but Mr Davis said last week he could "live with" a shorter one if it helped secure a deal.
mong other issues the two sides have had to negotiate for the transition period have been what rights expat citizens have, what role the European Court of Justice has in the UK, fishing quotas, whether the UK can negotiate future trade deals with non-EU countries as well as the continuing issues of the Northern Ireland and Gibraltar post-Brexit.
BBC Europe Editor Katya Adler said the issues of the Northern Ireland border and Gibraltar have the potential "to bring the whole Brexit deal down". Adrian O'Neill, Ireland's ambassador to the UK, says it is crucial both sides make progress on the border issue, while Gibraltar's chief minister Fabian Picardo has expressed confidence that it will be included in the planned Brexit transition deal.
The UK and EU hope that if and when a transition deal is agreed negotiations can focus on what sort of permanent future relationship the UK and EU will have - with the aim of a deal being agreed in the autumn to allow time for EU member states and the UK Parliament to ratify it before Brexit next March. (ANA)
FA/ANA/19 March 2018---------
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