Britain is playing catch-up with Brussels over Brexit

THE UK government on Monday raised the tempo over Brexit talks with the release of the latest in a stream of issue negotiation papers. Five months after Article 50 was triggered, the UK team is seeking to counteract European Union (EU) accusations that it is unprepared and not setting out a clear enough vision for its planned exit, slowing progress of talks.

At stake is whether enough momentum can now be secured to persuade October's meeting of the European Council of presidents and prime ministers that the second phase of Brexit talks should be started on the future new UK-EU relationship, especially over trade. However, EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier indicated last week that an October start point was now unlikely - and could therefore be kicked out to December or even 2018 - given that discussions of so-called "separation" issues (including the UK's "exit bill" for EU exit, expatriate rights and the Northern Irish border) have not seen enough progress in his view.

If delay happens, these crucial discussions on the future EU-UK relationship may be reduced to as little as 10 months, increasing prospects of no deal and a hard, disorderly Brexit. This is because Mr Barnier believes that talks need to be wrapped up by October 2018 to allow for any final deal to be ratified by the European Council, European Parliament and the UK Parliament before March 2019 when the two years of the Article 50 period end.