May and Juncker remain '˜confident' of deal despite no breakthrough in Brussels

Brexit talks broke up in Brussels without a deal, after a proposed solution for the Irish border met fierce resistance from the Democratic Unionist Party.

Discussions are set to resume later this week, with both Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker declaring themselves “confident” that a solution can be found in time for a key summit of the European Council on December 14.

placeholder image — File photo dated 29/03/17 of a sign for an abandoned Customs Facilitation Office at the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland near the village of Killeen

Mrs May began her lunchtime meeting with the Commission president with hopes high that Brussels would be able to declare that sufficient progress had been made on the so-called “divorce issues” in order to allow the leaders of the remaining 27 EU nations to give the green light for trade talks to begin next week.

But reports that Mrs May was on the verge of agreeing a deal on “regulatory alignment” between Northern Ireland the Republic led the DUP to warn it would not back any agreement which threatened the territorial integrity of the UK.

Read: DUP vows to block any Brexit border deal which separates NI from the rest of the UK