Ursula von der Leyen and Leo Varadkar outside Irish Government buildings

Speaking during her first official visit to Ireland, the EU chief said that formal talks would begin at the end of February or early March and simultaneously cover a range of issues. She said the overarching topic is how Britain will abide by the EU’s principles and rules in post-Brexit. She said before heading into talks with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar that they are in a very good spirit to work as hard as possible to move forward quickly. She believed that they will go in parallel not only in trade but a lot of other topics.