When asked why a trade deal had not already been secured by chairman of The Spectator Andrew Neil, Wolfgang Munchau of EuroIntelligence said: "Both sides are to blame. The EU misjudged the Brexit process from the start and is still misjudging it now.
"There was too much hope that the UK would extend the deadline, they didn't believe Prime Minister Boris Johnson when he said he would not extend, they didn't expect to be in this position now.
"The assumption has been in Brussels that the UK needs a deal more urgently than the EU, and for that reason the UK has an interest in conceding."
However, a throwback interview by Giuliano Amato, a former Prime Minister of Italy, who helped draft the European Constitution and Lisbon Treaty, suggests something else entirely.
In order to leave the bloc, Britain had to invoke Article 50 of the Treaty on the European Union, which started a two-year process of withdrawal. Mr Amato, who wrote the now infamous Article 50, claimed it was largely for show.
He told a conference in Rome in 2017: "I wrote Article 50, so I know it well.
“My intention was that it should be a classic safety valve that was there, but never used.
"It is like having a fire extinguisher that should never have to be used.
"Instead, the fire happened.”
Mr Amato went on to describe Brexit as a "disaster", dubbed former Prime Minister David Cameron "mad" for calling a referendum over it and urged other countries not to follow suit.
The europhile's claims expose an ugly truth, which is that Article 50 was designed specifically so that no member state would contemplate triggering it.