As the hopes for reaching a Brexit deal this week shattered, some British anti-Brexit campaigners want to impede the government to present their withdrawal deal to the parliament, as they consider than forcing Northern Ireland to remain aligned with a customs union other than the United Kingdom's is unlawful.
In order to achieve this, they're planning to lodge a petition at Scotland’s highest civil court this Thursday, if the court finds the government's deal unlawful it could force it to ask Brussels for an extension, as per the Benn act.
“We do not understand how the government might have come to negotiate a withdrawal agreement in terms that breach amendments tabled by its own European Research Group," explained Jolyon Maugham, an anti-Brexit activist.
The Brexit is expected to dominate the agenda of the EU summit this Thursday, however, there is pessimism concerning the likelihood of reaching a definite satisfactory deal, as some EU officials have suggested that asking for an extension may be necessary to do so, in fact, the Irish PM Leo Varadkar already stated that another EU summit may be necessary to work out all the details.
The fears for an effective stalemate are also being fed by the Democratic Unionist Party (which currently gives the British government its majority in the parliament) negative to accept the Brexit deal as it stands.
“As things stand, we could not support what is being suggested on customs and consent issues and there is a lack of clarity on VAT,” said the DUP leaders Arlene Foster and Nigel Dodds in a joint statement, “We will continue to work with the Government to try and get a sensible deal that works for Northern Ireland and protects the economic and constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom,” they added.
However, not everyone is pessimistic regarding the possibility of advancing significatively towards reaching a deal on the upcoming European Union Summit, as the German Europe Minister Michael Roth expressed his optimism.
“From what I have heard on the Brexit talks, I am encouraged to say this could lead to something,” told Roth to the Bavarian Broadcasting this Thursday.
Meanwhile, the UK prime minister Boris Johnson doesn't stop tweeting about leaving by October 31, despite at this point, with the unlikelihood of reaching a comprehensive and acceptable deal before the British Law forces the government to ask for an extension, it seems unlikely that his game of chicken will work the way he intended
Trump is holding talks with "some new people" in Europe
But the Brexit is not the only issue that the European Union leadership has to deal with since Donald Trump keeps threatening them with tariffs if they don't comply with the United State's request.
On Wednesday after meeting with his Italian counterpart, Trump claimed that he was holding talks with "some new people" in Europe regarding trade matters. He also offered Italy tariffs discounts but only if they get rid of the EU burdens.
“Without the burdens, as unfair as they are, imposed by the European Union, we would actually have a much higher number than $70 billion between Italy and the United States,” explained Trump.
However, it doesn't seem that dealing with the Europeans is a priority for the White House at this moment since the U.S. Treasury Department is focused on the trade discussions with the Chinese. In fact, the U.S. trade representative Steve Mnuchin confirmed that imposing tariffs against the European Union was "not the focus at the moment."
By 7:50 GMT the Euro gained 0.07 percent against the U.S. dollar, at the 1.1078 level. Conversely, it climbed 0.43 percent against the pound sterling, at 0.8664. While the Pound Sterling lost against the Japanese Yen and the Swiss franc, going down 0.30 percent and 0.55 percent respectively.