EU’s chief executive Juncker ‘not very optimistic’ about UK’s Brexit deal

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Thursday he was “not very optimistic” about Britain’s chances of leaving the EU with a deal. He warned that any failure to agree an orderly Brexit deal will be economically costly. “If no deal were to happen, and I cannot exclude this, this would have terrible economic and social consequences in Britain and on the continent, so my efforts are oriented in a way that the worst can be avoided,” Reuters quoted Juncker as saying. “But I am not very optimistic when it comes to this issue,” Europe’s chief executive said. Juncker met British Prime Minister Theresa May in Brussels on Wednesday. “Because in the British parliament every time they are voting, there is a majority against something, there is no majority in favor of something,” he told a plenary session of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).