EU leaders' Brexit negotiating guidelines were leaked to the media this week ahead of a key summit on Thursday, where they are expected to decide that "no sufficient progress" has been made in the deadlocked talks.

In a minor breakthrough the draft guidelines, which are subject to change and yet to be published by the European Council, show the EU 27 hopes to open internal trade talks about their future trading relationship with the UK.

However, they also reveal how two of the EU's most powerful heads of state - Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel - have adopted a tougher stance against Britain which will heap pressure on Theresa May to make concessions on the key issue of citizens rights.

The French president and the German chancellor pushed for - and succeeded in securing - an amendment which insisted on the European Court of Justice (ECJ) playing a role in future disputes over EU citizens in the UK.

This could amount to the ECJ continuing to have jurisdiction over British courts, even after Brexit - which is a red line for Mrs May.

The tougher talk on the continent comes despite Mrs May and Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU's senior official, agreeing that their working dinner on Monday evening "took place in a constructive and friendly atmosphere."