The European Union’s top Brexit negotiator Michael Barnier said during a press conference at the conclusion of the third round of talks on Thursday that no decisive progress has been made so far. Speaking alongside his UK counterpart David Davis in Brussels said that there has been some progress on topics such as the rights of frontier workers and pending cases in the European Court of Justice (ECJ) but there has not been much of a progress on decisive subjects. While the United Kingdom has been looking to discuss the future relationships with the European Union, the bloc has been sticking to its demand that no such talks will take place unless the rights of European workers in the United Kingdom are settled along with the Brexit bill that could range between €50-70 billion. The gross amount could be as high as €100 billion. While Mr. Barnier, who called for seriousness at the beginning of the talks on Monday, said that it is clear that the United Kingdom does not feel obliged to honor Brexit bill obligations once it leaves the European Union, Mr. Davis suggested that it is his obligation on behalf of the UK taxpayers to go through the bill calculations line by line. He added, “The settlement should be in accordance with the law and the spirit of the UK’s continuing partnership with the EU. We won’t be making incremental progress on this in every round. There are still significant differences to be bridged.”

Both have agreed that significant progress has been made on the border issue of Ireland. Mr. Bernier said, “We have made genuine progress on the common travel area and have also been able to clarify work that needs to be done in a constructive spirit, in particular, north-south cooperation in the Good Friday Agreement”