The meeting in Berkshire, where King Charles II’s Windsor Castle is situated, suggests the UK and the European Union are finally ready to settle their differences over a stand-off that has persisted since the UK’s departure from the EU single market and customs union in 2021. Finalising Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit trading arrangements has been a hangover from the withdrawal agreement that the UK and the EU agreed in 2019, when Boris Johnson was Britain’s prime minister.
EU Brexit chief Maros Sefcovic will brief member states on Monday on the state of play, according to a person familiar with the plans. The proposed solution centres on “green” and “red” customs lanes for goods flowing from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and onwards to the EU respectively. That would end onerous checks and paperwork on goods travelling within the UK, Bloomberg previously reported.