No means no.

No legal guarantees. No enforceable deadline for completing a trade deal. No expiration date for the Irish backstop. No renegotiation. In sum: No more help from the EU for U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May before a vote in the British parliament on the Brexit deal.

May still seems certain to lose that vote because of extensive opposition from within her own party and the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, whose MPs vote with her government. And in the absence of any substantive political or policy shift in London, speculation has swirled about what, if anything, the EU27 might do to strengthen May's chances of getting the deal through.

The answer is nothing — at least nothing Brussels hasn't done already, which is to reaffirm the EU's commitment to the target date set in the Withdrawal Agreement for agreeing a future relationship with the U.K. by the end of a transition period, on December 31, 2020.

Brussels is also willing to restate that the backstop intended to prevent the re-creation of a border between Ireland and Northern Ireland is an emergency measure that is never intended to be used, that it will be temporary if triggered, and that the EU has no intention of trapping Britain in backstop limbo forever.

"It is up to the U.K. to ask for concessions, not the EU to offer them proactively" — EU diplomat

But senior officials in Brussels and national ministers from across the Continent stressed that there is nothing more the EU could do for May ahead of the Commons vote, which the prime minister's spokesperson confirmed today would take place on 15 January.

If the British parliament rejects the deal — made up of the legally binding Withdrawal Agreement plus the Political Declaration on the U.K.'s future relationship with the bloc — the EU27 will then wait and watch for the political fallout in London. That could include the possibility of national elections, a second referendum or some other step by May's government to prevent a no-deal scenario.

"Nothing has been offered to May," one EU diplomat said. "Everybody waiting for the vote on the 15th."

Another diplomat said: "It is up to the U.K. to ask for concessions, not the EU to offer them proactively." The diplomat added, "I don’t see room for a legally binding end date of the backstop."

EU ministers arriving in Brussels for a General Affairs Council meeting on Tuesday said there has been no request by the U.K. to delay the March 29 deadline for Britain's withdrawal — a request that senior EU officials had previously said they would consider only in conjunction with a clearly articulated purpose for the delay such as to await the outcome of a new national election.

“I don’t work on hypothesis,” French EU Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau said. "The current situation is complex enough. It hasn’t been asked by the British authorities so no ifs and whens.” Emphasizing that there had been no request from London, Loiseau added: “They have not raised the concept."

At their summit in December, EU leaders expressed frustration that May insisted she was not trying to renegotiate the agreement reached in November but was clearly trying to win new concessions and changes, particularly to the backstop provisions, which would, by definition, entail a renegotiation. They also complained that the U.K. still has not sorted out its own internal disagreements over what sort of Brexit plan could in fact win the support of a majority of the House of Commons.

Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė even cheekily urged the U.K. to make a Christmas wish and "finally decide what you really want."

#Brexit Christmas wish: finally decide what you really want and Santa will deliver pic.twitter.com/lJziZsahry — Dalia Grybauskaitė (@Grybauskaite_LT) December 13, 2018

But Christmas and New Year have now come and gone with no further clarity in London.

Junior Digital Minister Margot James speculated Monday that it might be necessary to extend the Article 50 deadline if May's deal does not win the backing of MPs.

Such an extension would require the unanimous approval of all remaining EU27 countries, but the European Court of Justice has also ruled that the U.K. could unilaterally withdraw its Article 50 notification under the EU treaty, thereby preventing its departure and effectively halting the Brexit process indefinitely. While that decision would let the British government prevent a no-deal scenario, it would almost certainly carry heavy political costs at home, and a steep diplomatic price on the Continent.

Arriving at a meeting of EU ministers on the General Affairs Council in Brussels, U.K. junior Brexit Minister Martin Callanan said May's government is intent on winning next week's vote.

"The deal that is on the table is the best and the only deal possible" — Margaritis Schinas, European Commission's chief spokesman

"We are all focused in the government on winning parliamentary support in the vote that is coming up next week," Callanan said. "The prime minister will be updating parliament tomorrow and she will be talking about the clarifications, reassurances that parliament is seeking that the backstop will not be permanent."

Callanan also flatly rejected any suggestion that the U.K.'s departure would be pushed back. "We are very clear," he said. "The policy of the government is that Article 50 will not be extended. We are leaving the EU on the 29th of March this year because that's what Article 50 says, that's what parliament voted for, and that's now what British domestic legislation says as well."

His boss, Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay earlier Tuesday denied a report in the Telegraph that British officials are "putting out feelers" in Brussels about a potential extension. "Yes, I can be very clear that the government's policy is to leave [the EU] on the 29th of March," he told the BBC's Today Program.

The European Commission's chief spokesman, Margaritis Schinas, said Monday that Brussels is working on its own ratification of the Withdrawal Agreement in the European Parliament, but stressed that there is nothing more the EU27 could do for May ahead of the vote.

"The deal that is on the table is the best and the only deal possible," Schinas said. "This was confirmed by the EU27 in our December Article 50 European Council. And this deal will not be renegotiated. On our side, we have started the process of ratification. We will now follow closely the ratification process of the U.K. and of course we will be ready to start preparations for negotiations on our future partnership immediately after the signature on the Withdrawal Agreement."

Pressed on whether there would be any shift by the EU, Schinas said: "There's no negotiation, because everything on the table has been approved, established, achieved ... negotiations have been completed."