MOSCOW (Sputnik) – EU Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier said Wednesday he hopes an agreement on the United Kingdom's "orderly withdrawal" would be reached by October 2018, only then followed by future relationship and trade talks.
"I hope that in October 2018, as far as the divorce, we will have an agreement on the orderly withdrawal, the various questions which we see as priorities, and then we will have the definition of transitional periods," Barnier said.
Speaking at a briefing in Brussels, he said the "nature of any transitional period will of course depend very much and will govern our future relationship, the question of the free trade agreement."
"But this is not to be discussed immediately, we have to first proceed to establish a solid basis, establishing a climate of confidence between the UK and EU27 before we can proceed," Barnier said.
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