European media: 'Sailing towards iceberg' on Brexit

The European press is disappointed by the perceived lack of progress at Wednesday's European Council summit, which many had expected to play a decisive role in moving the Brexit negotiations along.

Many commentators thought the prospect of Britain leaving the European Union without a deal was now more likely, especially given Prime Minister Theresa May's problems over the Irish border and opposition within her Conservative Party to any open-ended extension to Brexit transition arrangements.

'Haunted'

In France, the left-wing daily Liberation compared Brexit to the film Groundhog Day.

"The UK also seems stuck in a time loop: for the past two years, meeting after meeting, we are reliving the same scene of a country incessantly setting conditions for a divorce that are perfectly unacceptable to its soon-to-be ex-partners in the union," it said.

"The chroniclers of the Brexit negotiations were disappointed on Wednesday," the centre-left daily Le Monde said.

"It is largely the British prime minister who, if we believe the other 27, needs the delay so she can find a political majority in London to seal the divorce accord."

The paper also described the Irish border issue as a "very big stumbling block".

The centre-right daily Le Figaro said the summit had been "haunted by the prospect of 'no deal'".

"This plays out against nightmarish images, real or not, of long lines at Calais, planes stuck on the ground, and European citizens finding themselves trapped overnight," it added.

"The stakes keep rising in the Brexit poker game," said the German left-liberal weekly Spiegel.

Because Theresa May had not put forward any new proposals to resolve the Irish border issue, the magazine said, the EU "has now made good on its threat" and had decided to cancel the special summit planned for November.

"After the first day of the meeting, Europe is only closer to the 'no deal' option," said the centre-right German daily Die Welt.

Elsewhere in Germany, the popular tabloid Bild said that on the first day of the "summit of helplessness" Theresa May "had nothing in her luggage but declarations of intent".

"There is no end in sight to the Brexit drama, as the Brussels summit made no significant progress on Wednesday," said the centre-left Munch daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung, echoing a sentiment seen throughout the European press. "But at least there was an agreement to continue negotiations on the UK's exit deal," it added.

'Duped again'

"A little more time is the only thing the Europeans are still willing to give the British," said journalist Dominique Minten in Belgium's leading centre-right daily De Standaard.

"Europeans are afraid they will be duped again" because Theresa May could not guarantee any deal would pass through Parliament, he said, recalling then Prime Minister David Cameron's assurances that Britain would not vote for Brexit ahead of the referendum.

"Nobody stands to benefit from a hard Brexit but for now Great Britain and the EU continue to sail towards the iceberg like the Titanic," correspondent Ruud Mikkers wrote in the popular Dutch centre-right daily De Telegraaf.

'Gordian Knot'

The offer to extend the transitional period was a clear signal that Britain accepted the "tremendous challenge of managing Brexit, even if there is an agreement in place", said the centre-left daily El Mundo.

It quoted one diplomatic source as saying: "If the British moved, we could convene the final summit tomorrow."

El Mundo's coverage of the story

"Brexit has never looked so much like a trench war. The two parties keep behind their positions while trying to reach an agreement," the conservative daily La Razon said. It compared the talks to the mythical Gordian Knot and said that the Irish border problem seemed to be "unsolvable".

Theresa May met Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (L) this week at the European Council in Brussels

"It would take Alexander the Great to resolve the situation and avoid risks as serious as the resumption of civil war," said Italy's leftist daily Manifesto, referring to the 1998 Good Friday agreements that ended the conflict in Northern Ireland.

And it warned the Democratic Unionist Party was "an indispensable prop" of the British government, so "even if Theresa May accepted a temporary customs union she would have a fight on her hands to secure the votes for it at home".

The conservative daily Foglio said no European leader would want to be in Theresa May's shoes now that the probability of a no-deal Brexit was growing.

Foglio compared Mrs May to Boudica, the queen who led an unsuccessful British uprising against Roman rule and "committed suicide so as not to surrender to the enemy". "'Fight to death!' all those who have made attempts on her political life are urging her, while their proposals crash against a solid European wall, solid as never before," it added.

'Optimism but no progress'

"The EU wants to continue to seek a Brexit agreement," the populist tabloid Oesterreich said, foreseeing "optimism, but no tangible progress on the EU special summit, only intensified preparations for an exit without an agreement".

Romania's liberal-leaning daily Adevarul said the EU had given a "few extra weeks to reach an amicable divorce with the UK". It noted that several officials said there were signs that "Britain would consider expanding the post-Brexit transition beyond the 21 months proposed for talks on facilitating future trade relations".

A commentary in the Czech business daily Hospodarske Noviny warned that Britain had started Brexit talks with "utterly unrealistic, even stupid impressions" and called on Britain's pro-Brexit politicians to "drop the naive ideas that Brexit is an automatic path to a country overflowing with prosperity".

"The Brexit negotiations are deadlocked, and even the November summit has been called off," the Hungarian political and business weekly Heti Vilaggazdasag said. "Stalemate carries a huge risk: if no agreement is reached and the British walk out without any deal, even the prior agreement on the transitional period could go in the bin," it added.

The summit looked like the "beginning of a drama" rather than its conclusion, said Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT. It added that the coming weeks would tell whether there would be a "dramatic compromise" or a no-deal Brexit but chances of a breakthrough had dwindled since the latest meeting.

BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.