EU rebuffs Johnson bid to reopen Brexit deal

NO ‘REALISTIC ALTERNATIVES’ FROM JOHNSON ON BACKSTOP

Says backstop a vital part of the divorce agreement

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s demand that the European Union reopen the Brexit divorce deal was rebuffed yesterday by the bloc, which said Britain had failed to propose any realistic alternative to an agreed insurance policy for the Irish border.

After more than three years of Brexit crisis, the United Kingdom is heading towards a showdown with the EU as Johnson has vowed to leave the bloc on October 31 without a deal unless it agrees to renegotiate the divorce terms.

The bloc has repeatedly refused to reopen the Withdrawal Agreement, which includes a protocol on the Irish border “backstop” that then-prime minister Theresa May agreed in November. In his opening bid to the EU ahead of meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Johnson wrote a four-page letter to European Council President Donald Tusk.

“I propose that the backstop should be replaced with a commitment to put in place (alternative) arrangements as far as possible before the end of the transition period, as part of the future relationship,” Johnson wrote. “Time is very short.” Tusk

said Johnson had proposed no realistic alternatives, and the European Commission took a similar line, though the EU’s most powerful leaders - Merkel and Macron - had yet to comment.

“Those against the backstop and not proposing realistic alternatives in fact support re-establishing a border. Even if they do not admit it,” Tusk tweeted.

Pound falls

A note seen by Reuters setting out the agreed joint position of the 27 EU states staying on after Brexit said the EU regretted Johnson’s bid to scrap a “necessary, legally operative solution” in favour of a “commitment to try to find a solution”.

Britain’s pound, sensitive to the prospects of a no-deal departure, promptly fell to near three-year lows against the euro and the dollar.

European diplomats expect little progress on Brexit until the British domestic landscape becomes clearer when parliament returns on Sept. 3 - after which the opposition Labour Party has vowed to try to collapse Johnson’s government.