British Prime Minister May suffers another loss in Parliament over Brexit

“There is a tradition in the E.U. of things being settled at the last minute,” said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform. He noted that the Maastricht summit in 1991, for instance, came together at the last minute, and that the seven-year EU budget seems to be settled right before the deadline.But he stressed that the stakes were much higher with Brexit.

“The uncertainty is much greater than usual and the consequences of getting things wrong are much greater than usual,” he said. “Normally, if you’re trying to ratify a new treaty and you don’t ratify a new treaty, then life goes on as before. This is not the case with Brexit. If we don’t get a deal ratified, the world changes very dramatically for the EU and in particular for the UK,” he said.