Brexit talks don’t get breakthrough, continue on summit eve

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union and British negotiators have failed to get a breakthrough in the Brexit talks during a frantic all-night session and will continue seeking a compromise on the eve of Thursday’s crucial EU summit. An EU official, who asked not to be identified because the negotiations were still ongoing, says “discussions continued until late in the night and will continue today.”

More than three years of false starts and sudden reversal

Both sides were hoping that after more than three years of false starts and sudden reversals, a clean divorce deal for Britain leaving the bloc might be sketched out within the coming hours. Thursday’s EU leaders’ summit comes just two weeks before the U.K’s scheduled departure date of Oct. 31. Brexit divorce talks in Brussels are making such slow progress that three European Union nations predicted Monday the negotiations could spill beyond this week’s crucial Brexit summit.

The painstaking paragraph-by-paragraph talks

Belying the need for speed across the Channel, Britain trotted out a horse-drawn carriage and a diamond-encrusted crown so the queen could read out the government’s post-Brexit plans to Parliament. In terms of historical importance, the painstaking paragraph-by-paragraph talks at the EU’s glass-and-steel Berlaymont headquarters seriously outweighed the regal ritual in which an ermine-draped monarch delivered a speech on the priorities of a Conservative Party government that could be out of office within weeks. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson insists the country will leave at the end of the month with or without a deal, something the queen reiterated Monday.

“My government’s priority has always been to secure the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union on the 31st of October,” the 93-year-old queen said in a speech to Parliament that was written for her by the government.

It remains to be seen whether Johnson will achieve that goal.

'Could well go right down to the wire'

Ireland, Finland and Spain all said the Brexit negotiations could well go beyond this week and go right down to the wire at the end of the month. Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said late Monday it was “too early to say if it is possible to get a breakthrough this week or whether it will move into next week.” Antti Rinne, prime minister of Finland, which currently holds the EU presidency, said in Helsinki that he had given up hope for a quick breakthrough ahead of the Brexit summit.

“There is no time in a practical way, and in legal base, to reach an agreement before the meeting,” Rinne said. “We need to have more time.”

At the EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg, Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell told The Associated Press that the Brexit talks were following a well-traveled path. “You know, in Europe, we always take decisions on the edge of the precipice, on the edge of the cliff,” he said. “Even when the last minute comes, then we stop the watch and say that we need technically more time to fulfill all the requirements, all the last-minute requirements.”