(Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May heads to a summit in Brussels on Thursday to seek help from the other 27 European Union leaders in shoring up domestic support for the Brexit withdrawal agreement. All times are local Brussels.

Key Developments

  • EU leaders will try to offer May cover for when she returns to the U.K.
  • The bloc will pledge to explore further assurances for the U.K. if needed
  • DUP Leader Arlene Foster said “tinkering around the edges” won’t do

Bettel says not time for Brexit Christmas presents (12:34 p.m.)

“The time of concessions has passed,” Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel told reporters in Brussels before the meeting of EU leaders. “We are just before Christmas, but it’s not time to make presents,” he said. “We are for the moment more united than politicians in the U.K. and I hope that they will be behind Theresa May to defend the deal.”

Rutte says not possible to renegotiate deal (12:27 p.m.)

“We all made very clear that renegotiating the resolved agreement is not possible,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told reporters in Brussels before the summit. “But I do sense that many of us are willing to look at ways to clarify what we collectively achieved and discussed and decided, particularly to make clear that the Northern Ireland backstop is both for the U.K. as well as for the European Union not desirable that it would come into force.”

Earlier:

May Pushed to Test Different Brexit Scenarios Before ChristmasBrexit Reversal Odds Have Risen After Confidence Vote: GoldmanBrexit Blamed as U.K. Housing Slips to Weakest in Six Years

--With assistance from Ian Wishart, Nikos Chrysoloras, Viktoria Dendrinou, Jonathan Stearns, Patrick Donahue, John Follain, Gregory Viscusi, Marine Strauss, Alexander Weber and Katharina Rosskopf.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lyubov Pronina in Brussels at lpronina@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Richard Bravo, Jones Hayden

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.