Isn't the green ink the bits that have been agreed? There is a lot they still haven't but it has to be a move in the direction of out.
Michel Barnier is now going to take the green and yellow document to the meeting of EU Affairs ministers for the 27 to get it signed off at ministerial level tomorrow. Then he will go to the Wednesday meeting of the European Commission with Jean Claude Juncker, where the Commissioners will sign it off, and then he will take it to the European Council, the meeting of Leaders on Friday where they will sign it off and they will also sign off their guidelines for phase II which is a six page document setting out their blueprint for how the talks about the future relationship are going to work. That will be another big symbolic moment although we know roughly what those guidelines are going to say so there isn't going to be any big surprise. Then, it will be a case of how quickly to talking about that future relationship. Will it be straight after the meeting of the European Council and the meeting of the Leaders or will there be another bureaucratic process, where Michel Barnier takes those guidelines away and clarifies them into an even more detailed document, which is what happened with all the stuff about the transition period, or can they get down to it straight away. It's worth remembering, though, that what the EU says is the best case scenario from those negotiations. It is a political agreement about the shape of the future relationship. The EU is saying it will not be the fully fledged free trade deal that the British government talks about so that's what the next few months is going to be about. Just how detailed is that political declaration and just how much does it look like a free trade agreement.
(Adam Fleming on DP)
