Ahead of today's meeting with European Commission's (EC) vice-president Maroš Šefčovič, the UK's Brexit Minister David Frost stated that there remained "really quite significant gaps" between the positions of Britain and the European Union (EU) on Northern Ireland. "There are a large number of issues that need to be fixed," Frost noted, "if we're going to resolve this problem".
The minister also added that he did not expect any breakthroughs in today's negotiations with Šefčovič. "Obviously our preference is to see if we can find a negotiated way through this problem," he said. If the negotiators cannot agree, "Article 16 remains on the table", Frost warned.