The gloves came off in the latest round of Brexit talks, with the European Union asking the U.K. to come clean on the money it owes and British negotiators exasperated at what they see as the EU’s stubbornness. The stage was set for an intense round of talks in Brussels as the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier and Brexit Secretary David Davis met for the first time since mid-July and candidly aired their views. A plea for the EU to show flexibility and hurry talks along was immediately snubbed by Barnier, who accused Britain of a lack of clarity. The U.K. camp believes negotiations could progress if Barnier’s team didn’t follow its mandate to the letter. With eight weeks to go until a key EU summit at which the bloc’s leaders will be asked to judge whether the negotiations have made “sufficient progress” to allow the U.K. to open trade discussions, the talks have made little headway on Britain’s financial settlement and plans for the Irish border. A flurry of U.K. position papers failed to impress Barnier while back in London the main opposition party raised the stakes for embattled Prime Minister Theresa May by calling for the U.K. to stay in the single market and customs union for up to four years after its departure on March 2019. Step Back “There’s growing impatience in Brussels—for the moment it seems that U.K. decision-makers are busy arguing at home,” said Carsten Nickel, deputy director of research at Teneo Intelligence. “If the papers question the agreed sequencing, then what we’re actually seeing is a rolling back of progress achieved.” The U.K.’s bill remains the biggest stumbling block to an agreement, with Davis determined not to tell the EU where it accepts it has obligations. This month he told the BBC that this was part of his negotiators’ “constructive ambiguity” approach to try to obtain a better deal. “We must start negotiating seriously; we need U.K. papers that are clear in order to have constructive negotiations,” Barnier told reporters as he stood alongside Davis before their meeting on Monday. “The sooner we remove the ambiguity the sooner we will be able to be in a position to discuss the future relationship and a transitional period.” Before meeting Barnier, Davis told reporters that “the week ahead is about driving forward the technical discussions across all the issues. But in order to do that we’ll require flexibility and imagination from both sides.” Stoke Fire The U.K. doesn’t appear to have given up on exploiting potential rifts between the European Commission and the countries that give it its mandate. Davis at one point said some of the EU’s 27 government backed his demands. Earlier on Monday the French presidency denied a report in the Daily Telegraph that it was willing to take a softer stance on when trade talks could begin. Neither the U.K. nor the EU is expecting much of a breakthrough this week even as both British and German business lobbies came together Monday to call for “clarity and certainty.” Davis will leave to his colleagues the task of making progress on how to keep the Irish border open after Brexit, the status of citizens living in each other’s countries and the infamous bill. Without progress in these three areas, the EU is adamant that talks cannot move on to commerce. Pressure for a breakthrough has increased since the Labour party, which came close to unseating May in June’s election, announced it wants four-year transition arrangement to avoid a cliff edge. That is a tempting proposition for anti-Brexit Conservatives who could shift allegiances and force May, who lost her majority in Parliament, to make concessions she otherwise would have resisted.