‘Disastrous’ week as the sides draw apart

and in Brussels

European hopes of negotiating a new Brexit deal have been put on hold after a “disastrous” week of talks in Brussels in which it became clear that both sides were moving further apart, EU sources have warned. The gloomy outlook formed after two rounds of talks in Brussels last week at which EU negotiators said that the British team had still failed to table any workable proposals to deliver an alternative to the Irish backstop.

With more than half of the “blistering” 30-day timetable set last month now expired and the political situation in London in chaos, both diplomats and officials briefed on the talks warned that nascent optimism after Boris Johnson’s summer visits to Berlin and Paris had now faded.

During talks, David Frost, Mr Johnson’s EU adviser, floated the idea of a stripped down Irish backstop, focusing on the possibility of Ireland aligning on agricultural rules while ignoring other aspects of the border, such as customs, VAT and standards.

The UK also made clear that it was seeking only a “Canada Dry” type of trade deal with Europe and would not accept EU demands to align on social, environmental and state aid regulations to maintain the so-called “level playing field”.

Both positions fall far short of what Europe believes is necessary to have any hope of salvaging a deal.

“After this week the appetite to entertain and elaborate on such proposals in the EU is limited given the reality in London and the limited ambitions of its government for the future relationship,” a senior EU source said.

With UK negotiators pushing for the abolition of the backstop and a hard rupture with Europe after Brexit, EU diplomats said there was a continued debate as to whether Mr Johnson was serious about negotiating a deal.

“We ask ourselves are we being played for time or is this going to be serious at some point?,” a second EU source added. “It suits UK internal politics to pretend there’s a process going on in Brussels.”

Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, is understood to have told EU ambassadors that Brexit was now “in paralysis” when he briefed them on the state of the talks, which came after he had reiterated the EU’s red lines on the need for the backstop.

EU diplomats continue to believe that Mr Johnson’s willingness to entertain an all-Ireland regime for food standards – a key component of any border checks – is a “step in the right direction”, but cannot address fundamental questions if the future relationship is set to be so distant.

However if those British red lines were to shift, then EU diplomats still hold out the prospect of a deal that – while it looks very similar to the fundamentals of Theresa May’s rejected deal – would deliver an exit for the UK.

Mr Johnson will travel to Dublin tomorrow for discussions with Leo Varadkar, the Irish Taoiseach, although the Irish leader has made clear there is no expectation of a breakthrough coming from the talks.

Irish sources are adamant that they will not be sucked into any bilateral negotiations with the UK for fear of undermining the unity of the EU 27 which has always negotiated through Mr Barnier and his team at the European Commission.

Last week Michael Gove, the “no-deal” Brexit chief, held talks with Simon Coveney, the Irish deputy prime minister, in which the pair discussed the idea of Northern Ireland remaining aligned with the EU for food standards.

However, Mr Coveney was clear that while the discussion had been useful, the UK proposal – which would only address about 30 per cent of issues that lead to border checks – could only be the starting point for a solution. “I wouldn’t like to pretend that if we can solve the agri-food issue, then technology can solve the rest,” Mr Coveney told a meeting of the British Irish Association.

EU diplomats add that the political situation in London, where Mr Johnson looks to have been boxed in, has raised the hypothetical prospect of a last-minute deal at the Oct 17 European Council meeting.

Mr Johnson has promised that he will not seek an extension to Article 50 under any circumstances, meaning that one way to avoid having to do so after Oct 19 would be to strike a deal and then ask Parliament to vote on it to avoid no deal or another extension.

Although the prospects of a hard EU line remain faint, EU diplomatic sources say that there is an appetite in some quarters to force the Brexit issue to a head before the bloc begins a new five-year Commission under a German president, Ursula von der Leyen.

“The ‘do or die’, put on the pressure approach can cut both ways,” as one senior EU diplomat observed.