The EU Parliament met in Strasbourg this week, as is the practice every month – though October has been an exception, with two visits to Strasbourg.

As well as the vote to ban glyphosate (though non-binding) the parliament’s business was dominated on Monday by a briefing received from Commission President Jean Claude Juncker and Council President Donald Tusk.

It has become something of a practice that nothing particularly substantial is said, so the focus is on the type of language used and whether or not it was conciliatory in tone to the UK.

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Much of the lead-up to the session in Strasbourg was dominated by alleged leaks about what went on at the dinner last Monday night in Brussels between Prime Minister Theresa May and Jean Claude Juncker.

Reports suggested that the Prime Minister was exhausted and begging the EU for help, with Juncker’s chief aide, Martyn Selmayr blamed for the leak. Whatever the nuances around the mood of the dinner, it is clear that the UK and EU have still to get on the same page in order to progress negotiations.

In the parliament debate, there was also little to suggest that things were about to change any time soon. The December council meeting is now the next target at which it is hoped negotiations will move on to the next stage. There is what now looks to be an ambitious target to have negotiations wrapped up late in 2018, to allow the Brussels system to ratify.

For Scottish farmers, particularly in the sheep business, this is most worrying. While the beef industry benefits from being able to export parts of the animal outside the UK, it can still capture a large share of its value within the UK market alone.

However if sheep trading is done on a WTO basis, Scottish farmers will lose out badly, because overall the UK is the world’s third-largest exporter of sheepmeat.

Next year’s crop of lambs will be OK, as it will be business as usual. However, for the crop that would be scheduled for the spring of 2019, it is a very uncertain picture indeed – and events in Strasbourg this week did nothing to allay these fears.