According to press reports on Monday, EU27 leaders will discuss giving additional guidance to Barnier at an informal summit in Salzburg, Austria, on 20 September, with an EU official quoted describing the instructions as a “sort of mandate to do the [Brexit] deal.”
If there is an agreement among leaders, the guidelines could be adopted at next month’s Council summit, in preparation for a special Brexit summit in November.
Elsewhere, the UK Minister for Cabinet Office David Lidington said that he is confident that the UK and the EU will reach a deal by the end of November at the latest.
Meanwhile, ALDE group leader Guy Verhofstadt said that Brexit has saved the European Union from the wave of Eurosceptic politicians that wanted to destroy the bloc.
Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s Brexit coordinator, claimed that Britain’s torturous exit from the EU had thwarted populist movements across Europe.
Verhofstadt told the Ouest France newspaper, “Fortunately, we have Brexit. It illustrates the populist wave, but it has also provoked a resurrection of attachment to the EU within public opinion.”