Summer days drifting away
The Brexit negotiations are entering a summer break with no plans for formal talks before the last week of August. The problem, as Bloomberg’s Nikos Chrysoloras writes on Wednesday, is that very little headway has been made in two rounds of discussions. Critical issues such as the rights of European Union citizens in Britain and how much the U.K. should pay on leaving have still to be resolved. The European Parliament, which can veto any deal, said on Tuesday the final pact must be directly enforceable and allow for the European Court of Justice to play a full role. Britain wants to end the ECJ’s say in its laws. The European Commission, meanwhile, says Brexit will create a gap of as much of 12 billion euros ($14 billion) after 2020. The to-and-fro is throwing into jeopardy British hopes that the EU governments will use an October summit to declare enough “sufficient progress” had been made on these topics to shift the debate to the long-term trade pact May is seeking. As