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EU's Barnier Says Expects Brexit Deal With UK to Be Reached in 6-8 Weeks

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has noted that the United Kingdom and the European Union could reach a deal on Brexit in six or eight weeks.
Sputnik

"We are on the way to find this deal… We have to solve this issue of Ireland and some others the next six or eight weeks… I am working today to prepare this declaration the same delay, the same agenda in October, [or] the beginning of November," Barnier said at the Bled Strategic Forum.

The statement was made amid fears of "no-deal scenario" and opposition by some politicians to UK Prime Minister Theresa May's so-called Chequers plan, adopted by the UK cabinet in July. At the present moment, the parties are still at odds over the major withdrawal issue of post-Brexit customs arrangements.

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The Chequers plan stipulates that the sides could create a free trade area for goods and maintain a "common rulebook" for all items, a proposal which has already been rejected by Brussels. The Brexit deadline is less than 200 days away, but the two sides are yet to reach a divorce deal, with officials increasingly expecting an informal October deadline to slip into November.

READ MORE: May Could Face 'Massive Problem' as 80 Tories Ready to Bury Her Brexit Plan

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