Brexit trade talks likely to start next month, says Irish PM

Leo Varadkar said 'sufficient progress' was due at the December meeting

Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (PA)

Ireland's Prime Minister has said he expects the European Union to agree to advance Brexit negotiations to their trade talks stage next month.

Leo Varadkar told the Irish Parliament that he now thought it was "likely" that "sufficient progress" would be granted at the European Council meeting scheduled for 14 and 15 December.

The EU has refused to discuss trade and Britain's future relationship with the EU until three "separation" issued have been sufficiently settled – the Northern Ireland border, EU citizens' rights, and the divorce bill.

Britain missed out on moving to the next stage of trade talks at October's summit after warnings of a "deadlock" in talks by the EU's chief negotiator.

“I‘m now of the view that it is likely that we will be able to say that sufficient progress has been made at the December meeting allowing us to move onto discussions on transition and the future arrangements,” he said.

In September the Taoiseach, who has been staunchly anti "hard Brexit", warned it was too early to assess the progress in secession talks.

Last month he warned Britain not to "sleepwalk" towards the cliff edge of a hard Brexit.

He warned that it was not enough for the UK say it did not want a hard border with Ireland and said more "detail" was needed.

Another round of talks between David Davis's team and EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier's team are scheduled for Thursday and Friday this week.

The UK on Tuesday released a new technical paper expanding on its plans for EU citizens after Brexit, in a bid to break the log-jam. The Government pledged that those applying for "settled status" would be able to appeal rejections, and that the process would be cheap and require a little documentation as possible.