The European Union will reach a Brexit deal with Britain in November if it does not do so this month, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said in an interview published by Austrian newspapers on Saturday.
Mr Juncker said that the potential for a rapprochement between the two sides had grown in the last few days, echoing what diplomatic sources have told Reuters.
“We are not there yet. But our will to reach an understanding with the British government is unbroken,” he was quoted as saying by Der Standard and Kurier and Der Falter.
“We have to get away from this no-deal scenario. It wouldn’t be good for Britain or for the rest of the [European] Union,”
“My assumption is that we will reach an accord which will achieve the conditions of the withdrawal treaty,” Mr Juncker said, adding it was not possible to predict whether there will be a conclusion to the Brexit negotiations in October.
“If not, then we will do it in November.”
EU Brexit negotiators believe a divorce deal with Britain is “very close”, diplomatic sources told Reuters, in a sign a compromise on the most contentious issue - the future Irish Border - might be in the making, although details were scarce.
On Friday, EU Brexit negotiators told ambassadors of the 27 states remaining in the bloc that there was no breakthrough on the Irish issue and much would depend on what their British counterparts bring to Brussels next week.
Mr Juncker told the Austrian papers a political declaration on future relations between Britain and its former European partners was needed accompanying the Brexit deal.
“You can’t absolutely keep separate the withdrawal treaty and the declaration of the future relationship between the United Kingdom and Europe,” he said.
Britain and the EU are trying to push the divorce deal as well as an agreement on post-Brexit relations in time for two leaders’ summits scheduled for October 17th-18th and November 17th-18th.
Irish Government sources suggested an agreement on the crucial Border issue was “very close”.
As talks intensified, Tánaiste Simon Coveney accused leading arch-Brexiteers of peddling “crazy” ideas about the impact of a no-deal withdrawal.
Mr Coveney’s rebuke came as Dublin urged British prime minister Theresa May to bring forward her proposals to break the deadlock in the Brexit talks over the Border.
When it was put to him that Brexiteers believe the Republic would not erect a border in a no-deal scenario, Mr Coveney told Channel 4 News: “That is a crazy argument.”
Elsewhere, British foreign office minister Sir Alan Duncan insisted Tory MPs seeking to oust the Mrs May represented a fringe element.
Warning against a move to replace the PM, Sir Alan told the BBC: “Don’t believe all those things you read in the newspapers and take it that there are a lot of numbers behind the noise.
“And that’s where you need to apply a lot of political judgment to work out whether the complainers are just a fringe, or whether they represent the main body of opinion in the middle.
“The main body of opinion in the middle and right to the edges is absolutely solidly behind her.” – Reuters, PA