There is an intention of Firedrake group to incorporate their patches into FEniCS. This has started in FIAT https://bitbucket.org/fenics-project/fiat/pull-request/7. The characteristic feature of the changes is moving FFC code (mixed, enriched elements, new Firedrake features) more upstream to FIAT.

[Jan] This is what I have also considered when figuring out how to fix https://bitbucket.org/fenics-project/ffc/issue/69. It also needs refactoring some code and the most clean way seem to be moving it to FIAT thus making FIAT and FFC orthogonal.

The discussion got a little bit tense when Firedrake team became frustrated by FEniCS team requirements. So we should discuss it and possibly agree on a procedure (it we agree at all).