EU Brexit chief eyes 2019 agreement

The EU is determined to sign a Brexit deal by 2019, but has warned the UK it won’t get everything it wants.

In his first major Brexit speech this year, the European Commission’s lead Brexit negotiator said the UK must honour its EU budget pledges and won’t be allowed to simply opt into the bits of the single market it likes.

“A scenario where there is no agreement, a no-deal scenario, is not ours,” Michel Barnier told a gathering of regional lawmakers in Brussels yesterday.