What did Britain do?
This victory is mainly reflected in the negotiation timetable. The most firm demand of the British government in the past few months is to sign a new free trade agreement with the EU as soon as possible, so as to minimize the impact of Britain's withdrawal from the EU on the British economy. To this end, Davis stressed that bilateral trade consultations should be "synchronized" with issues such as the arrangement of citizens' rights and interests. However, on the first day of the negotiations, the British side made concessions on this issue.
What does the EU say?
The EU said that the issue of trade agreements can only be discussed in the second phase of negotiations. First of all, the two sides must make "significant progress" on the EU's priority issues, especially the rights of EU citizens in Britain and solving the financial problems of both sides. This means that Britain can't expect to reach its most important new trade agreement until the "breakup fee" problem of hundreds of billions of euros is solved.
According to the current progress of negotiations, the first phase of negotiations will be completed before 10 this year.
According to British media reports, when Davis walked out of the closed-door meeting of the Belmont Building at the headquarters of the European Commission, the smile on his face was obviously stiff. However, he denied that Britain had made concessions to the EU for the sake of order, insisting that nothing had changed.