EU, Ireland skeptical of a breakthrough

DUBLIN/BRUSSELS — The European Union and Ireland said on Thursday that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit proposals were unlikely to yield a deal, with Dublin bluntly warning that Britain was heading towards a no-deal exit unless it made more concessions.

The European Union said it fully backed Ireland and that while it was open to discussions, it was still unconvinced about Johnson’s plan - cast by British officials as the final offer to avert a no-deal Brexit on Oct. 31.

Just 28 days before the United Kingdom is due to leave the EU, both sides are positioning themselves to avoid blame for a delay or a disorderly no-deal Brexit.

Johnson says he wants an agreement but insists there can be no further Brexit postponement.

The cool reception from Brussels to Johnson’s proposal indicates just how far apart the two sides are on the first departure of a sovereign state from the EU, which was forged from Europe’s ruins after World War Two.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who is key to any possible deal, said he did not fully understand how the British proposals might work and that Dublin could not sign up to a treaty that did not safeguard an open Irish-british border.

Varadkar’s deputy, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney, went further, saying that if Johnson’s proposals were final then a nodeal Brexit lay ahead.

“My judgment is that Boris Johnson does want a deal and that the paper that was published yesterday was an effort to move us in the direction of a deal. But...if that is the final proposal, there will be no deal,” Coveney told parliament.