The UK government has described talks with the EU over the Northern Ireland Brexit protocol as constructive but insisted it was not about to cave in on its demands that the role of the European Court of Justice be scrapped.
The talks this week were constructive and we ve heard some things from the EU that we can work with but the reality is that we are still far apart on the big issues, especially governance, the source said.
Our position remains unchanged: the role of the European Court of Justice in resolving disputes between the UK and the EU must end. UK sources said substantial gaps between the two sides remain and warned that real progress had to be made in the coming week as the UK intended to make its decision on whether to trigger article 16 imminently.
Under this scenario, article 12 of the protocol would be amended to water down the role of the ECJ.
Some believe this is an elegant solution. As such an arbitration model was already agreed in EU-Swiss talks, it would not require another round of tough negotiations to get approval from EU member states.
It could also address the complaint from unionist critics of the protocol over sovereignty.
Experts including Catherine Barnard, professor of EU law at the University of Cambridge, said that in reality disputes over the trade of goods rarely reach the level of the ECJ, with as few as 24 cases pending out of a total of 1,045 on the Strasbourg court lists.
A team from the European Commission is due to travel to London on Tuesday for several days of intensive discussions.
Frost and the vice-president of the EU Commission, Maro ef ovi are then due to meet in person in Westminster for talks at the end of the week. The two leaders will assess progress and take stock of progress so far.