1/ What to expect when Brexit talks resume here tomorrow? For one, talk about the UK's push for the 'outline' of a trade deal by the end of the month. It's No 10's 'buzzword of the summer' according to EU diplomats, but they're quite confused about what exactly it actually means.
2/ The UK has been pressing this idea hard not only with the Commission but also EU capitals. The PM even mentioned it to Barnier in person when he dropped in on his dinner with Frost in No 10. The feeling is it'd be a new paper setting out the 'political trade-offs' in any deal.
3/ And this is where it becomes problematic, because Barnier and the EU really aren't keen. They suspect it's an attempt to rewrite the Political Declaration with more favourable terms for the UK. Of course, you can argue that the EU once rubbished the PD as non-binding.
4/ But Barnier now sees it as essential to giving him room to compromise and get a deal. It's not just the UK he's got to negotiate with, but also EU capitals. And building everything on the PD helps him curb their naturally harder instincts, which are laid out in his mandate.
5/ Second, the Commission and diplomats fear any 'outline' would turn out like the Joint Report of December 2017, which became a millstone around both sides' necks. The well-intentioned idea of that document was to set out both sides' political priorities in the withdrawal talks.
6/ In reality what it did was place two contradictory paragraphs about the Irish border - one written by the EU and the other by the UK - side by side and allowed both sides to row endlessly by saying the other had signed up to their version of events. It was counter-productive.
7/ For these reasons, the Commission has shown 'little interest in engaging in a long exercise' to draw up another new joint document, according to EU diplomats. They say the UK has put huge emphasis on the idea as a way of securing something to show for the talks this month.
8/ One says: 'It'd be better to start working on the legal text, but for that we need more convergence. There's a point when the Brits are going to have to engage if they don’t want this whole process to sink.' Another adds a 'joint report style' paper would be 'a waste of time'.
9/ As for the general state of the talks, Barnier debriefed Member States that there was 'no progress' last week and the UK side still hasn't shown any sign of compromising. But despite that, there is still a fair amount of confidence here that a deal is there to be done in time.
10/ Not too much time, mind. The EU is warning its ratification process for an FTA is more complex/difficult and agrees it'd be best to get the bulk of the work done this summer. So all eyes here on if/when the UK will make a move to reciprocate Barnier's overtures of compromise.
