EU leaders fail to break deadlock over Irish border

EU leaders have failed to break the deadlock over the Irish border at a special Brexit summit.
They met last night in Brussels, but have decided not enough progress has been made to call another summit in November.
The British Prime Minister also hasn’t ruled out an extra year of transition – which would allow more time to find a solution.
Despite no deal being reached last night there was a clear message of positivity from the EU.
Sources said leaders had learned from the scolding they gave the British Prime Minister in Salzburg and are determined to avoid that mistake to achieve progress.
The tone of the meeting between Leo Varadkar and Theresa May was said to be positive and that they were getting somewhere.
But the British Prime Minister didn’t put anything new on the table to end the current impasse over the border with Northern Ireland and the backstop arrangement.
There’s talk of a special EU summit in November to sign off on a withdrawal arrangement – but European leaders won’t call that meeting unless they believe something can actually get done.
And at the moment, that still seems rather far away.