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Sam Lowe of the Centre for European Reform said: “If I was Boris Johnson, I’d ditch the DUP for a Northern Ireland-only backstop. I think his party could live with it.”

Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, said: “A deal between EU and UK is more likely than I had thought - my conclusion after 2 days of meetings with EU, member-state and UK officials.”He added Boris Johnson has made "quite a good impression" with Brussels chiefs.

The Centre for European Reform’s director Charles Grant has tweeted a lengthy thread suggesting that EU officials are onboard with this in theory.“France, Germany, Commission could go along with this, but only if UK produces serious proposals, which it has not yet done. It would have to accept role for ECJ,” he wrote. “The other member-states do not want to put pressure on Ireland. But if the UK gets serious about a deal and shows flexibility, there would be gentle encouragement for Dublin to accept something almost equivalent to backstop.”

A 22-mile bridge between Scotland and Northern Ireland would not be impossible – the longest bridge in the world, the Danyang–Kunshan Grand Bridge in China, is over 102 miles long.But trade expert and senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform think tank Sam Lowe told City A.M. it was unlikely to solve any Brexit-related issues.“It remains unclear why putting a customs border in the middle of a bridge running over the Irish Sea is more palatable to the DUP than a customs border in it,” he said.

”Hun er åbenlyst meget ambitiøs på EU’s vegne. Måske for ambitiøs til, at hun kan få alle medlemslandene med,” siger seniorforsker Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska, der er ekspert i de europæiske institutioner ved tænketanken Centre for European Reform (CER):

“It’s a general problem of bank profitability, and now they [the banks] can find someone — the ECB — to blame,” says Christian Odendahl, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform.

Camino Mortera-Martinez, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform, says the decision to couple competition law and digital issues for the first time is important. "Digital stands for everything, from security, to jobs, to the economy and civil rights," she explains. "By tying it to competition law, which has been used as a geopolitical tool, you risk alienating the partners that you need to work closely together with you.”