But London cannot dictate the meaning of the deal which has allowed Brexit negotiations proceed to the next step. It does not matter what the UK government thinks the agreement means - what matters is what the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) says it means. Even if the EU-Canada deal is used as a template to speed things up, an agreement on the final arrangements is still going to take time. Paragraph 96 could mean that if a final agreement is not reached then the report is valueless. Any future arrangements must be compatible with these overarching requirements.

Source: The Irish Times December 12, 2017 05:48 UTC