nathalie tocci, who's the special adviser to the european commission vice president federica mogherini. i asked her what she by germany, the netherlands, sweden and others, indeed allowing for the extension to actually happen, but also on the other hand, ensuring that there are clear political signals coming from the uk as to what kind of destination eventually all this might lead to, as well as sort of compliance checks, if you like, that if the uk indeed does remain temporarily within the european union, it does continue to abide by eu laws and regulations. there has been a debate today about what size of extension would be best. if you wanted to get the withdrawal agreement ratified, then better to keep up the pressure by agreeing to a shorter extension. if you wanted to push the uk perhaps towards a second referendum, may be a longer extension. do you think those sort of discussions will be ongoing tonight? i suspect they will. and indeed, the question is, what is the actual end point? the desired end point. the point is, of course, that on the one hand there is the need to have some sort of withdrawal