I think the EU are playing a waiting game. They're not rising to the bait simply because they can legitimately respond to the UK that, "yes we are taking you seriously, hence the recent offer, but we have problems in our own backyard that require immediate attention". The diplomatic equivalent of a telephone answering machine message, "your call is important to us and an agent will respond as soon as one is available. You are currently....third in the queue".

But they can also read polls. they can take a reasonable punt on the unionists getting reduced to an ineffective rump in the next Stormont parliament, when the republican and unionist parties of ascendancy will be Sinn Fein and Alliance. That is going to deny Westminster a chorus in Stormont. The dynamic is flowing in the EU's direction if they're patient. They just have to ride out the next few months

keep to the Fen Causeway