The U.K. and the European Union are ready to move on to Brexit trade negotiations after reaching an agreement on the Irish border and other issues. “Both sides had to listen to each other, adjust their position and show a willingness to compromise,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said in Brussels Friday morning. “This was a difficult negotiation for the European Union as well as for the United Kingdom.” Prime Minister Theresa May traveled early Friday with an offer to unlock the next phase of divorce talks: a financial settlement, an arrangement for Europeans living in the U.K. and a solution for keeping open the border that divides the island of Ireland after the split. The last turned out to be the thorniest. The Northern Irish party that holds the balance of power in London wielded a powerful veto until the last minute. Breaking the gridlock took months of work, delicate four-way talks and a series of missed deadlines. “We will guarantee there will be no hard border,” May said Friday morning. The U.K. accepted most of the EU’s demands and now has the prize it has been seeking since March—the right to start discussing relations between the two when Britain parts ways with the bloc after 40 years. But it doesn’t all end in March 2019, when the U.K. is slated to exit. A trade deal may take years to formulate. That’s why the two-year transition that May seeks is key—businesses want to know how long they have to plan for the future, whether that means relocation or continued investments. “Millions of jobs depend on the future trading relationship we will determine,” May said in Brussels. “Reaching this agreement now ensures that businesses will be able to make investment decisions based on an implementation period that offers welcome certainty.” May’s Conservative administration is fiercely divided over Brexit. Her Cabinet hasn’t decided what kind of trading arrangements it wants from Europe. The second phase will be even more delicate and important than the first. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said it will be far more complex. Britons will be watching to see if talks live up to what was promised: They were told that Brexit would mean free trade deals with Europe and the rest of the world, controls on European immigration and the repatriation of regulation. May has got the deal that she needed—and the agreement that businesses were clamoring for. Amid off-and-on threats to oust her, failure to move talks along could have cost May her job and brought more instability. It remains to be seen how pro-Brexit Conservatives respond to her concessions. Brexit Latest Britain Needs Talent | The U.K. doubled the number of visas available to highly skilled workers from outside the EU as it sought to show Britain remains open for business after Brexit. Leaders in science, research, technology and the arts will also be able to apply for settled status after three years. Rules for entrepreneurs, international students and researchers will also be made simpler.  Border Risk | The government is making a risky assumption that it won’t need new infrastructure on U.K. borders on Brexit day, putting too much faith in a potential transition arrangement, the Public Accounts Committee said in a report on Friday. The government doesn’t expect new IT systems to be ready on time, according to the parliamentary committee. “Against the hard deadline of Brexit it is borderline reckless—an over-reliance on wishful thinking that risks immediately exposing the U.K. to an array of damaging scenarios,” it said. Friendly ECJ | The U.K. is rarely taken to the European Court of Justice, and when it is, it wins cases more often than most other EU member states, the Institute for Government said Friday. Pro-Brexit Conservatives loathe the court, seeing it as a symbol of lost sovereignty. Its role in the U.K. after Brexit is particularly contentious. On the Markets | The pound rose late on Thursday on indications that a deal was near but was little changed Friday morning. And Finally… Relief has come for British lawmakers with arachnophobia as Cronus the tarantula, property of Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, is relegated from the very public location of the whips’ office to Williamson’s new House of Commons digs. Before his elevation last month, Williamson was Theresa May’s chief whip, tasked with keeping unruly members of her Conservative Party under control. Cronus—named after the Greek god who came to power by castrating his father and then ate his own children to be sure they wouldn’t oust him—was just the spider for the job. One Tory lawmaker, shuddering with relief, said although he was envious of Williamson’s meteoric rise, it was worth it to see the spider gone, Bloomberg’s Kitty Donaldson reports.