European Council President Donald Tusk | Frederick Florin/AFP via Getty Images Donald Tusk: No workable Brexit deal yet, but let’s keep talking ‘The time is practically up, but even the slightest chance must be used,’ says European Council president.

The U.K. has “still not come forward with a workable, realistic proposal” but there are “promising signals” that a deal could be reached, Donald Tusk said.

The European Council president spoke to journalists this morning shortly before a meeting between the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier and U.K. Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay concluded in Brussels.

“There’s no guarantee of success and the time is practically up, but even the slightest chance must be used,” Tusk said. “Technical talks are taking place in Brussels as we speak.”

It comes after one-to-one talks on Thursday between Boris Johnson and Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar concluded positively. Varadkar told reporters that after a “very positive and very promising” meeting it was now possible for both parties to strike a deal by the “end of October.”

Tusk today reiterated the positive outcomes of that meeting. “Yesterday, when the Irish Taoiseach and the UK PM met, they both saw — for the first time — a pathway for a deal,” he said.

Tusk added that he told Johnson a week ago that if there had been no workable proposal in sight by today, he would have publicly announced there were “no more chances” of a deal by the deadline.

“Prime minister Johnson promised the EU to come forward with a solution that would work for all. A solution that would not only satisfy the hardcore Brexiteers, but also solve our well known and legitimate objectives: to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, to protect the Good Friday Agreement and to ensure the integrity of the single market,” he said. “A no-deal Brexit will never be the choice of the EU.”

Barnier and Barclay met this morning for around two hours. Barnier will brief EU diplomats on the meeting at lunchtime.