The joint report, agreed on Friday 8 December by European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and British prime minister Theresa May, reaffirmed the commitment to protect the Good Friday Agreement and the 1998 Agreement to ensure peace, stability and reconciliation and to avoid a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.

As talks on Monday 4 December failed, mostly because of the issue of regulatory alignment, the formula now includes two paragraphs which seem to exclude each other.

Paragraph 49 states:

“The United Kingdom remains committed to protecting North-South cooperation and to its guarantee of avoiding a hard border. Any future arrangements must be compatible with these overarching requirements. The United Kingdom's intention is to achieve these objectives through the overall EU-UK relationship. Should this not be possible, the United Kingdom will propose specific solutions to address the unique circumstances of the island of Ireland. In the absence of agreed solutions, the United Kingdom will maintain full alignment with those rules of the Internal Market and the Customs Union which, now or in the future, support North-South cooperation, the all-island economy and the protection of the 1998 Agreement.”

Paragraph 50 on the other hand states:

“In the absence of agreed solutions, as set out in the previous paragraph, the United Kingdom will ensure that no new regulatory barriers develop between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, unless, consistent with the 1998 Agreement, the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly agree that distinct arrangements are appropriate for Northern Ireland. In all circumstances, the United Kingdom will continue to ensure the same unfettered access for Northern Ireland's businesses to the whole of the United Kingdom internal market.”

John Marshall, the British ambassador to the UK, could not give more details on this when contacted by Delano:

“These are the two paragraphs that have been discussed since Monday. The agreement very clearly maintains the CTA and sets out both sides’ determination to avoid a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. But it also makes very clear that Northern Ireland’s position within the single market that is the United Kingdom will be fully protected.”

He added that:

“The goal, as set out in the third sentence, is to achieve the objectives through the overall EU-UK relationship. That is the main goal. Should this not be possible, we will propose specific solutions to address the unique circumstances on the island of Ireland. That is a commitment to find a solution that ensures things like energy, that those existing areas of North-South cooperation will continue.”

But he added that “there is a lot more work to be done on this. It will be a busy 2018.”

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John Marshall said:

“We’re pleased that we have reached this milestone and good progress has been made, and that the recommendation will be followed by the European Council. We haven’t focused on what the specific milestones will be for the March European Council. We want an implementation period agreed as quickly as possible early in the new year. We want to get into discussing the new partnership, whether we’re talking about trade, security or defence or whatever asap. The commission will need to draw up agreed guidelines for that. That process will take some time, but hopefully that can be done quickly. We don’t have criteria for what we hope will be achieved by March 2018.”

Michel Barnier has warned that the biggest hurdles are still to come.

Some people have argued that this wording may make a hard Brexit or a no deal much less likely.