We need Irish backstop now, warns Barnier

EU chief negotiator issues stern warning over border with tough response to UK’S Brexit position

MICHEL BARNIER dismantled key parts of Theresa May’s Brexit plan yesterday, putting the European Union on a collision course with the Government only hours after the Prime Minister demanded fresh concessions from

Brussels.

The EU’S chief Brexit negotiator pulled apart the Brexit White Paper, published last week, attacking both its trade proposals and its solution for the Irish border question.

He also suggested that splits in the Conservative Party could force Mrs May to go back to the drawing board to recast the UK negotiating postion, adding that the “debate is not over yet”.

Speaking hours after Mrs May’s keynote speech in Belfast demanding that the EU “evolve” its own position in the light of British concessions, Mr Barnier responded simply by re-drawing the EU’S own red lines. He questioned whether Mrs May’s dual-tariff customs proposals would ever be “workable” and warned that Britain’s demand to be free to diverge on services would give “unfair” advantage to British companies and pose a “major risk of fraud”.

“Are these proposals workable, are they applicable without any additional complexity or bureaucracy?” he said, adding that “Brexit will not and cannot justify additional bureaucracy”.

Instead, Mr Barnier said that the focus must be on agreeing the text of an “Irish backstop” that would guarantee an invisible border in Ireland in any eventuality.

“We need a backstop now,” Mr Barnier said, adding that the EU would not back down on its requirement for checks on goods going into Northern Ireland from the British mainland.

Simon Coveney, the Irish deputy prime minister, wrote on Twitter that it was up to Mrs May to deliver a “a viable and legally operable” backstop, without which the EU is adamant there can be no divorce deal and no transition period. However, Mrs May comprehensively rejected the EU’S proposal, warning it would place a customs border down the Irish Sea and leave a foreign power representing part of the UK at the World Trade Organisation.

She demanded that the EU entertain a proposal that enabled the avoidance of a border both in Ireland and the Irish Sea, and equally respected the Good Friday Agreement and both the nationalist and unionist communities.