The Wall Street Journal: Brexit negotiator says U.K. and EU have reached a stalemate in talks http://ift.tt/2ydgDSc

BRUSSELS—The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator said Thursday that not enough progress had been made to recommend talks move on to the future trade relationship between the EU and U.K, but added he was confident “decisive progress” could be made in the next two months.

Michel Barnier said the latest round of talks had not made great progress on key divorce issues, including citizens rights, the future status of the border in Ireland and the EU demand that Britain stand by financial commitments it made as an EU member.

Barnier said the two sides were in a “disturbing” deadlock on the issue of the divorce bill. In the previous three rounds of talks, the U.K. refused to acknowledge that the bloc’s seven-year budget, which runs through 2020, is binding on Britain.

The EU has said it will only discuss a future trade relationship once “sufficient progress” has been made on such issues, but seven months after the U.K. opened the two-year negotiating window to leave the EU, the two sides have hit a stalemate over around the terms of Britain’s exit.

An expanded version of this article appears on WSJ.com

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