Ireland's EU Commissioner @PhilHoganEU says if he was "a betting man" his money would be on a December EU Council to reach agreement on the Irish backstop
“I think if we don’t get proposals in the next few days it’s unlikely we’ll have a deal in Nov, so the pressure is on the UK to make those proposals. But I wd say if I was a betting person we would have a Dec Council to discuss the final outcome. But hopefully we can do a deal
“There’s been a lot of expectation generated by the United Kingdom government over the past week that we’re about to have a deal but we haven’t received any proposals from the prime minister yet, that indicate that we are close to a deal.
“Mrs May has spelt out she has a problem with the backstop, the Taoiseach and the European Union have made it perfectly clear that there will be no change in the Joint Report from December 2017...
...and we now have to wait for proposals from the UK about how they can adapt their position to accommodate the agreement that they’ve already made in relation to the backstop on the island of Ireland.”
“It’s very prudent for the European Commission and all member states to plan for all eventualities. Nobody wants a situation where we don’t reach an agreement, but our businesses and our sectors are anxious to know what the position will be in the event that there is no deal
"...so the Commission is working with member states to ensure that we are properly prepared for all eventualities.”
