The President of the European Commission Ursula Von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson are expected to hold talks on the final sticking points in the post Brexit trade negotiations later today.
Last night the EU and British chief negotiators agreed to suspend the talks after a week of intense negotiations in London.
Unable to reach agreement in three key areas, Michel Barnier and David Frost decided to pause the talks because, as they put it, the conditions for an agreement are not met.
They cited significant divergences in the three long established problem areas – fish, fair competition and dispute resolution.
This morning they are briefing their respective political heads, Ursula Von der Leyen and Boris Johnson who will then talk this afternoon to see if a top level political intervention can can unblock the talks.
If they succeed, a trade and security deal between Britain and the EU is within touching distance.
If they do not succeed Britain will fall out of a series of preferential economic, security, data, financial and transport agreements in 26 days time, while the EU will lose Free Trade terms with one of its biggest trade partners, access to all fishing rights in UK territorial waters, and access to British criminal justice and security and intelligence services information.