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Or as Sam Lowe at the Centre for European Reform summarises, “we already know that this will be rejected by the EU, because there is little to distinguish it from the myriad ERG proposals we have seen over the past year.”
“While the EU is - and always has been - prepared to discuss technical solutions to the Irish border as part of the future relationship, they are not prepared to rely on something that does not yet exist as an insurance policy. The backstop actually needs to be a backstop.”
 

Charles Grant, a long-term Brussels hand who heads the Centre for European Reform, has a sobering message for Brexiters tonight. He warns that the EU will indeed refuse to reopen talks on the backstop and highlights the gulf between what is on offer in Brussels and the kind of concessions the Brexiters now think they can win. "Having spent much of this week in Brussels, I have no doubt that the EU will refuse to reopen the withdrawal agreement/Irish backstop. EU leaders are alarmed that UK pols remain so ignorant of the EU position and the realities of Brexit."

The UK economy was 2.3 per cent smaller in the third quarter of last year than it would have been if the country had voted in 2016 to remain in the EU, according to the Centre for European Reform. The pro-EU think tank trimmed its estimate for the cost of Brexit from 2.5 per cent at the end of the second quarter, after the UK outperformed the hypothetical model economy. The new estimate means a weekly hit of £320 million ($422 million) to public finances, or £17 billion a year, the group said.

According to the Centre for European Reform, a pro-EU think tank , the UK economy is already 2.3 per cent smaller than it would have been if Britain had voted to “remain” in 2016.

“Britain’s decision to leave the EU damaged growth, largely thanks to higher inflation and lower business investment. The UK missed out on a broad-based upturn in growth among advanced economies in 2017 and early 2018. And the economic cost of the decision so far is sizeable, if not disastrous.” (John Springford, Centre for European Reform)

The UK’s better-than-expected economic growth last year prompted a pro-European think-tank to trim its cost estimate for voting for Brexit.The UK economy was 2.3 percent smaller in the third quarter than had the country voted in 2016 to remain in the European Union, according to the Centre for European Reform, a 0.2 percentage point cut from the prior three months. The estimate means a weekly hit of 320 million pounds ($422 million) to public finances, or 17 billion pounds a year, the group said.

“I think her strategy has always been to postpone the vote until the very last minute, so that even those members of Parliament who are skeptical about her deal, but don’t want there to be no deal, would think twice about voting against it,” said Agata Gostyńska-Jakubowska, a senior research fellow in Brussels for the Centre for European Reform, a London-based research institute.