EU-27 leaders have today approved the 31 March draft guidelines 29 April 2017

There must have been something special on the menu in the canteen as it only took a minute to approve the guidelines first issued by European Council President Donald Tusk on 31 March

Those guidelines in full here but in essence it means that talks will begin after the UK general election on 8 June and the deadline for completing the negotiations is 29 March 2019.

The fact that it took only a minute to rubber stamp the draft proposals shows the EU-27 intent to show unity and it's reported that all 27 burst into a round of applause. No Theresa May there of course.

More importantly though it confirms that no talks on future EU/UK relations will begin until the exit process is completed and includes the not so small matter of the divorce payment by the UK which the EU estimate to be around €60bln because of EU budget rules. The UK has said it will pay nothing like that amount.

Yesterday Ryan reported a Bloomberg "sources" story ( now seemingly yet another one wide of the mark) which suggested the EU was ready to start talks before deciding the Brexit bill and that duly gave the pound a lift. We would expect initial posturing from both sides but in a politically charged environment with French, UK and German elections all in play this does seem that the EU27 are not offering too many olive branches at the start.

At the risk of being accused of talking my book I think today's confirmation should see GBP pairs open lower in Asia and with the US/N.Korea uncertainty playing out again I'd expect GBPJPY to lead the way down again.

Keep in mind also that it's a public holiday in UK and much of Europe on Monday so markets will be extremely thin not helped by the robots unable to book a day off.

Caution advised and I will be popping by at some point to cast an eye over events and add what thoughts I can.

Enjoy your week-end one and all. It's going to be another lively week ahead in the fickle world of forex.

May/Tusk discussions could be getting a little less cosy