Brexit Can Kicked Again

Sunday saw a short, joint press release from London & Brussels reveal the latest extension of the ongoing Brexit saga. It read: "We had a useful phone call this morning. We discussed the major unresolved topics. Our negotiating teams have been working day and night over recent days. And despite the exhaustion after almost a year of negotiations, despite the fact that deadlines have been missed over and over we think it is responsible at this point to go the extra mile. We have accordingly mandated our negotiators to continue the talks and to see whether an agreement can even at this late stage be reached."

• Now, what has happened over the weekend to result in such a move:
• It was unlikely that the talks were going to blow up at this stage with the best part of 3 weeks to go to the official deadline of December 31, although most argue that even that deadline is a little arbitrary, circumstances pending.
• It seems that most of the weekend press reports centre on the discussions surrounding the level playing field situation that the EU is pushing for. One of the most recent round of comments re: the matter, from a reporter with The Sun, suggests that "the EU has dropped its insistence on a 'ratchet clause' which would have formalised the principle both sides should keep up with each other's standards. It's now ready to cater for divergence in the future so long as there are strong safeguards to rebalance unfair competition."
• What next? EU Chief Brexit negotiator Barnier will brief EU Ambassadors on Monday, at 08:30 Brussels (07:30 London) on the "state of play of EU-UK negotiations."