UK Brexit Minister Dominic Raab and EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier are going to have a marathon six-hour session today. Raab said that he was “stubbornly optimistic” to reach a deal with the EU. He added that “valuable progress” was made but there is clearly “more work to do. And, he is “confident, if not more confident, now that a Brexit deal can be reached”.
Barnier, on the other hand, emphasized that with “no backstop” no the Irish border, “there’s no deal”. And he urged that “operational backstop is a matter of some urgency”. He also reiterated the upbeat comment that the future partnership with the UK is “unprecedented”. And he’s optimistic that a deal could be reached by October.
