In less than 48 hours the EU summit will start and both sides are racing to put a deal together. Boris Johnson, the British PM, wants to have a deal by the end of the summit which he can take back to Parliament. He has urged MPs to back any deal he will bring back from Brussels so that the UK can finally deliver on the Brexit referendum and leave on October 31st 2019. Optimism is now on the rise and after the British Pound reached a three-month high it started to pull back as time is running out.

Earlier today UK PM Johnson published his Brexit deal which replaced the Irish backstop which was the main stumbling block in the existing deal negotiated by his predecessor May and rejected three times in parliament. He has made a major concession to the EU with his proposal that all Northern Ireland will follow EU rules on manufactured goods and agriculture. In order to the get DUP on board, his plan allows Northern Ireland to decide by 2025 if they want continue following EU rules or adapt UK ones.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has been resilient in her premiership and was able to hold on so far, but it was only a matter of time until she would travel to the end of her road. Today she is facing another showdown in Parliament after cross-party talks to reach a Brexit deal compromise with the Labour Party broke down. May will now try to win over rebel Labour MP’s in order to have enough voted to pass her much hated Brexit deal after it was voted down three times before.

Three people familiar with the latest rounds of Brexit negotiations on Tuesday stated that the EU is very pessimistic that a deal can be reached. The biggest fear on the EU side is that no matter what concessions they decide to give May, who brought in Attorney General Geoffrey Cox to find a solution to the Irish border backstop issue, will not be enough to win a majority for the deal in Parliament. The EU doesn’t want to give in to their entrenched position unless they are sure it will result in a deal.

Delays, defeats and deadlines have been the norm since Prime Minister May brought back a deal from Brussels almost nobody in Parliament supports. Today’s vote was scheduled for last month, but May pulled it as it was clear that she would suffer a great defeat. Today appears to be no different, but many are now waiting to see by how many votes she will actually lose in order to determine the next steps. The EU could give more concessions if May loses by less than 60 votes.

Brexit is 113 days away, but British Prime Minister Theresa May has only five days to get her Parliament to vote for her Brexit deal. It appears rather unlikely that she will be able to convince her own party to back her deal. May has deployed her Chief Whip, Julian Smith, in order to talk so called rebels into voting for May’s deal. The backdrop is that he comes empty handed which means there is little hope that those opposed to the deal will simply change their mind. They are against it for a reason and unless the reason changes, there is nothing there to change their mind.

With time running out for the EU and the UK to reach a Brexit compromise, some try to create the illusion that a such a compromise is imminent. This is very inaccurate and misleading. While both sides are entangled in negotiations in order to resolve what currently appears to be the biggest problem, the Irish border, even a compromise is far off. While officials acknowledge that some progress has been made, they warn that obstacles remain before a compromise may be reached.

As the annual Conservative Parry conference drew to a close last night, Theresa May entered the stage to the tunes of Abba’s “Dancing Queen” with a few moves and a smile of her own. Unlike last year, when had a cough which would not stop and a stage collapse to deal with amongst other things, she was able to enjoy one hour of calm as she delivered her closing speech. That is one hour in the past seventeen months where things seemed to go her way.

After UK Prime Minister Theresa May delivered a 10 minute dinner speech last night to her EU counterparts over dinner, the mood is not what many hoping for a Brexit deal would wish for. She asked for more concessions, especially when it comes to the Irish border issue, in order to convince many in her own party that the Brexit deal negotiated is a good one. EU leaders showed no signs of giving concessions to May and the UK and in general struck a pessimistic tone on Thursday in Salzburg.

Theresa May, the Prime Minister of the UK, has had a turbulent 2017. Last week she returned from Brussels and celebrated what many called a breakthrough victory. Apparently enough concessions have been made that the EU announced the divorce proceedings can now move on the the much anticipated trade deal. The Brexit bill as well as the Irish border have held trade negotiations hostage as the time to March 2019, the date when the UK is supposed to officially leave the European Union, is ticking down.