London, Brussels fail to clinch a breakthrough on Brexit

Bloomberg

London and Brussels failed to clinch a long-sought breakthrough on Brexit after a series of dramatic twists that saw a tentative deal derailed by the delicate question of the Irish border.
“It was not possible to reach a complete agreement today,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters. Talks will resume this week and he’s confident there will be a agreement that paves the way for trade talks to begin.
May travelled to Brussels to meet Juncker for what was meant to be a key lunch to hash out the details and tie loose ends. She interrupted the lunch to speak to the leader of the Northern Irish party that props up her government—and which opposes the EU’s plan for the island after Brexit.
Shortly after that phone call, May and Juncker came out to declare no deal and left without taking questions. The pound fell.
This was not how the script was meant to play out—with a joint declaration of success expected and Irish PM Leo Varadkar poised to make a statement at 2:30 pm. Earlier in the day, chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier told a group of European lawmakers that a breakthrough was imminent.
To get to this turning point had required many concessions from May, whose own political fortunes changed from nine months ago—when she triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty that set the clock on Britain’s exit in March 2019.
Even with this setback, the hope is still for a mid-December summit of EU leaders to conclude that Britain has achieved “sufficient progress” in this first phase of talks so that trade negotiations can start and the transition arrangement that business wants can be put in place. It’s 17 months since the referendum and UK leaves the bloc in 15 months, with or without a deal.