Britain and the European Union reached a historic deal on Brexit divorce terms on Friday that allows them to open up talks on a future relationship after the split . Prime Minister Theresa May rushed to Brussels for early morning talks with European Commission President Jean - Claude Juncker to reach the breakthrough. The Commission announced that it "reissue including the Irish border , Britain's Divorce bill , and citizen's rights. But EU President Donald Tusk - who will recommend to leaders at a summit next week to open trade and transition talks warned that the toughest task was , to come. "Let us remember that the most difficult challenge is still ahead . we all know that breaking up is hard but breaking up and building a new relation is much harder," Tusk said.Negotiators worked through the night to seal an agreement after the EU set a deadline of Sunday . May said the key part of the agreement was to ensure there would be no return of checkpoints on the frontier between British - ruled Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland and EU member Ireland after Britain leaves on March 29 , 2019. " In Northern Ireland we will guarantee there will be no hard border " she said. Northern Irish unionists who prop up May's minority Conservative government scuppered a possible deal on Monday with their fierce opposition to wording they felt would divide the North from the rest of the UK.
Arlene Foster , leader of the pro - British DUP party , told SKY news she was "pleased" to see changes to the deal following their demands. The deal commits both sides to respect the 1998 agreement , which ended decades of violence between nationalists who want a united Ireland and Northern Ireland unionists to Britain.