"We are on the way to find this deal… We have to solve this issue of Ireland and some others the next six or eight weeks… I am working today to prepare this declaration the same delay, the same agenda in October, [or] the beginning of November," Barnier said at the Bled Strategic Forum.
The statement was made amid fears of "no-deal scenario" and opposition by some politicians to UK Prime Minister Theresa May's so-called Chequers plan, adopted by the UK cabinet in July. At the present moment, the parties are still at odds over the major withdrawal issue of post-Brexit customs arrangements.
The Chequers plan stipulates that the sides could create a free trade area for goods and maintain a "common rulebook" for all items, a proposal which has already been rejected by Brussels. The Brexit deadline is less than 200 days away, but the two sides are yet to reach a divorce deal, with officials increasingly expecting an informal October deadline to slip into November.
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