U.K. Won't Make Next Brexit Move Until After Friday's EU Summit

(Bloomberg) -- Brexit Secretary David Davis said the U.K. won’t make any more offers to the European Union in exit talks until after a summit of European leaders at the end of this week, reducing the chance of any breakthrough.

“We have yet to hear the council conclusions on Friday,” Davis told lawmakers in London on Tuesday. “Let’s wait and see what they are before we make the next move.”

The EU has made clear that the U.K. needs to make a better offer on what it’s prepared to pay when it leaves the bloc before it will agree to start discussing a trade deal. Leaders meeting on Thursday and Friday will offer some encouraging words to the U.K., according to a draft of the summit’s conclusions, but will demand more efforts from Britain before deadlocked talks can move on.

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May went to Brussels on Monday for dinner with EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and chief negotiator Michel Barnier after making a round of calls to EU leaders in an effort to get a more positive progress report at the summit. In a last-minute addition to the summit timetable, May will now have a working breakfast with the other 27 leaders on Friday, before they meet for a session on Brexit without her.

To contact the reporter on this story: Emma Ross-Thomas in London at erossthomas@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Heather Harris at hharris5@bloomberg.net, Eddie Buckle, Alex Morales