The Times' Brussels reporter, Bruno Waterfield, tweets
Some excerpts from his tweet thread:
"What's the Brexit mood in Brussels? It is "dark" - but too early to call until after Conservative party conference...
Barnier concerned that talks have gone "backwards" Nothing new in the three "non-papers", which repeat positions set out by Frost over last month - and that is seen as a backwards step. Barnier hoping to hear more from Barclay today - but not holding his breath...
Suspicion is that Johnson is playing for time: either to run down the clock or more positively waiting for right moment before moving closer to NI-only...
EU side does not expect any detail/or any shift on this until after party conferences. There is political will to go beyond current WA but papers have not helped "If things don't change beyond after the conferences it's looking bad" - END"
That doesn't bring about much optimism but let's see if the European Commission will offer any formal account of the non-papers submitted by the UK government yesterday.
If you're wondering what is this party conference he is referring to, I alluded to that last week here. To save you a click, we'll be observing party conference season in the UK whereby political parties will meet up to discuss all sorts of things.
Labour will be meeting from tomorrow until 25 September whereas the Tories will be meeting from 29 September until 2 October.
