'Sufficient progress' made over Brexit talks, says European Commission

The United Kingdom and the European Union have finally reached a breakthrough deal after the European Commission announced that "sufficient progress" has been made in the first phase of Brexit talks.

"The European Commission has today recommended to the European Council (Article 50) to conclude that sufficient progress has been made in the first phase of the Article 50 negotiations with the United Kingdom," The Guardian quoted European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, as saying at a press conference with British Prime Minister Theresa May.

"The Commission is satisfied that sufficient progress has been achieved in each of the three priority areas of citizens' rights, the dialogue on Ireland / Northern Ireland, and the financial settlement, as set out in the European Council Guidelines of 29 April 2017," he added.

The European Council (Article 50) would now decide on allowing the negotiations to proceed to their second phase or not.

May called the latest Brexit deal as "significant improvement" and said was not "easy as for either side" as there had been "give and take on both sides" to strike an agreement.

Recently, Brexit talks had hit a roadblock on the issue of the Irish border between the two sides.