May hints at using security as Brexit bargain chip

"Any indication that the UK would use security as a bargaining chip would irritate EU partners," Agata Gostynska-Jakubowska, a research fellow at the London-based think tank, the Centre for European Reform, told EUobserver...

...Gostynska-Jakubowska told EUobserver she was struck that May kept to her agenda of concluding the divorce settlement and the future agreement in two years.

She said that the plan was "unrealistic" and that May has set "the bar really really high".

"What could be achieved is a broad framework agreement setting out the future objectives of a future relationship," Gostynska-Jakubowska said.

She added that if Britain can find a deal on the issues the EU says are priorities, including settling its bills to the EU, the rights of EU citizens, and the border with Ireland, it could open a "window of opportunity" for a broader framework to be agreed upon.