The president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker has announced that he does not believe that the UK is ready to enter the second phase of negotiations.

The UK’s Brexit Secretary David Davis and the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier, have been involved in talks over the last months to try to lay the foundations for Britain leaving the EU.

However, in Strasbourg on Tuesday morning, president Juncker declared that more clarity was needed from the UK before they could move forward with negotiations.

This will come as a setback to the UK’s prime minister Theresa May, after her recent speech in Florence sought to reassure the European Commission.

She had stated that Britain would enter a two-year transition period from March 2019, where it would retain membership of the EU and continue paying membership fees until 2021.

President Juncker said that despite the optimistic tone struck by the Prime Minister in her speech, that work still needed to be done: ‘‘…we first need to agree on the terms of the divorce and then we see if we can half-lovingly find each other again’’.

The Irish problem

When it came to Ireland, President Juncker said that solutions needed to be found that fully respected EU law and the Good Friday Agreement.

The establishment of any trade deal will be held up until negotiations can move past the first phase of negotiations.

For Irish farmers, this means continued uncertainty with their largest and nearest trading partner, with over 50% of Irish beef going to the UK on an annual basis.

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