EU's Verhofstadt talks state of Brexit discussions with European Parliament

Guy Verhofstadt, the EU's Brexit negotiator said the UK was drawing out Brexit negotiations, saying the process needed to move to actual, meaningful negotiations as he expected no breakthroughs in negotiations later this week, and that sufficient progress by October would be difficult.

Verhofstadt said that the separation was rapidly approaching an "any deal is better than no deal" situation as a "no deal" on Brexit was no longer an option for either party.

The former Belgian prime minister reiterated previous sentiments that the UK and the EU had to come to an agreement regarding the settlement of Britain's contentious £92bn divorce bill before trade talks could begin.

Verhofstadt was hit with a barrage of questions from several members of the European Council on topics ranging from the Irish Border and how the EU plans to maintain the Good Friday agreement, of which the EU is a co-guarantor, to how he planned to guarantee the settled status of EU nationals already residing within the UK.

Verhofstadt also said it was paramount that the EU and the UK hashed out the framework for a transitional period to come in to effect after March 2019.