A few months ago, June’s European Council summit was billed as critical in terms of demonstrating progress on Brexit with a view to finalising the negotiations in October. However, the combination of the refugee and migration crisis flaring up again (causing bitter ructions within the German government and threatening Angela Merkel’s position) as well the lack of any headway both in terms of the UK-EU talks and securing a common Brexit position within Cabinet, meant it was largely a non-event from a Brexit perspective.
Below is our analysis of where things stand: