As withdrawal deal looms over UK, diplomats expect Brexit summit to crash

Britain and the EU seem closer than ever to a deal, but Salzburg showed the mood music can quickly change

A summit next week is being heralded as Brexit’s defining moment. The UK wants a deal. The European Union expects a deal. But in private, both sides warn it could be a disaster – at least on the face of it.
 

It’s become a Brussels tradition to have late-night pow-wows where victory seems within reach, only to end in collapse. Then the opposite is also true, with round-the-clock talks that yield a coveted deal that seemed elusive. The Greek crisis was a litany of brinkmanship with agreements that were close to being struck only to be ditched. A rescue came