Britain, EU enter make-or-break Brexit week

As Britain and the European Union enter the pivotal week when Brexit might finally occur, Queen Elizabeth II is due to step into the fray by performing her ceremonial duty of informing the parliament about the government's agenda for the coming year.

The agenda might be viewed as a campaign rather than a real legislative program considering that the Conservative party is in a minority.

This is also the week that determines if they are still on course to reach amicable divorce terms.

However, the chances of PM Boris Johnson's term lasting that long depends largely on the outcome of hurried discussions held behind closed doors in Brussels around the same time.

Northern Ireland and how to prevent the Northern Ireland border a backdoor to the EU markets sans controls, has been the toughest issue in Brexit talks.

As per reports, UK is willing to make concessions to its plans for the Northern Ireland border. However, "a big gap" remains over customs arrangements.

EU leaders will then meet on Thursday and Friday for a summit held under the pressures of the October 31 Brexit deadline just two weeks away.

According to the government, if a new agreement is reached at the summit, the new withdrawal agreement bill to be voted on next Saturday in a special Parliamentary session. This will be the fourth time the Parliament is meeting on a Saturday since 1939.

Diplomats see little hope that the sides can achieve in a few days what they had failed to since Britons first voted to leave the bloc after nearly 50 years in 2016.

"A lot of work remains to be done," EU negotiator Michel Barnier told ambassador Sunday.

Technical talks are continuing — variously described as "intense" or "constructive" — but few familiar with the process can point to progress on the decisive issue of British Northern Ireland's place in the EU customs zone.

Johnson, warning his ministers of a cliffhanger finish said, “a pathway to a deal could be seen but that there is still a significant amount of work to get there and we must remain prepared to leave on October 31”.

In the meantime on the topic of the Northern Ireland border, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said he might consider accepting Mr Johnson's plan for Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK's customs territory but adhere to EU customs procedures.

Johnson rose to power in July on a promise not to extend Brexit for a third time even if only a few more weeks are needed to get a deal done. Government officials, however, say that they will respect the law requiring an extension to Brexit talks if, on October 19, a deal isn't agreed upon.Outgoing EU chief Jean-Claude Juncker said British politics were getting more difficult to decipher than the riddle of an “Egyptian sphinx”.

“If the British ask for more time, which they probably will not, it would in my view be a historical nonsense to refuse them,” Juncker told Austria's Kurier newspaper. 

Something will have to give when the British parliament holds its first emergency Saturday meeting since the 1982 Falklands War. But Brussels might want to push Brexit back further into next year so that it stops interfering with all the other European issues piling up.

A long delay would be untenable for many eurosceptics ahead of an early election that some expect as early as December. But a short one of a few months might only come on the condition that it is the last.

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