It's hard to see the substance of the customs proposal working for the EU side. It creates regulatory friction with Britain and customs friction with the EU.

Mujtaba Rahman

Categorized in : World

Unless the proposals are a starting point, it's very hard to see both sides going into a tunnel to try and finalize a deal, if this is indeed the final offer, it's very hard to see a landing zone between the two sides.

You maintain the continuity in European Union, but there is still the overall uncertainty of what will happen in the longer term.

The economic situation is definitely challenging. I don't think it's going to impact consensus on oil.

Food and fuel prices have really dominated the day-to-day campaign, that's one of the reasons she's been so successful.

The lack of progress in the negotiating room is feeding a growing concern in Brussels and EU capitals about the lack of time, senior EU officials are now worried that negotiators might simply run out of time.

It's not going well... What is going to happen if there is no agreement is that Senior EU officials will have to impose tax and quotas on a certain number of British products.

There's been big movement in most of Europe's capitals in recognition of the scale of the challenge, that's decidedly what you're not getting from the' Frugal Four.' It's effectively a restatement of old positions.

The big cost of Brexit for the EU is that it has distracted time, attention and political capital from addressing the real substantive challenges that the EU itself faces, brexit was a team-building exercise where the EU could demonstrate how united they were. But it was really something of a cover to disguise how little they agree on the bigger challenges facing the continent.

The only leader that has a coherent vision is (French President Emmanuel) Macron, but he's very divisive in the way he goes about it. It's actually highly counterproductive. He wants to build consensus on these questions but the way in which he talks to other leaders actually hurts.