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Britain and the European Union have struck a Brexit deal, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Thursday, according to Fox News.

The agreement is a "great new deal that takes back control," Johnson tweeted, adding: "Now Parliament should get Brexit done on Saturday so we can move on to other priorities like the cost of living, the NHS, violent crime and our environment."

Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission President, said the deal was a "fair and balanced agreement."

The agreement, which came after days of intense negotiations, must now be formally approved by the bloc and ratified by the European and the British Parliament, which could be easier said than done. The U.K. Parliament has already rejected a previous deal three times, votes which eventually cost previous Prime Minister Theresa May her job. E.U. leaders endorsed the deal, which formally sent it to the U.K. parliament for ratification.

Johnson — who took office in July with the promise Britain would finally leave the EU on Oct. 31 — has likened Brexit to climbing Mount Everest.

Johnson will need all the support he can get to push any deal through Parliament. The key hurdle to a Brexit deal was finding a way to keep goods and people flowing freely across the border between Ireland, an E.U. member, and Northern Ireland, which is part of the U.K. That invisible, open border has underpinned the region's peace accord and allowed the economies of both Ireland and Northern Ireland to grow.

Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, Johnson's allies in government, have already signaled they could not back the outline deal.