Hopes for Brexit deal kept alive after hint from Irish
HOPES FOR a Brexit breakthrough have been kept alive after a suggestion from the Irish deputy premier that a deal could be struck as early as this week.
Boris Johnson is coming under pressure to concede more ground to Brussels, and it has been reported that the UK has dropped a demand that a deal should include a veto for the Stormont Assembly on customs arrangements.
UK and EU officials continued talks in the Belgian capital yesterday, with the prospects of an agreement in time for Britain to leave with a deal on October 31 in the balance.
Time is rapidly running out if there is to be an agreement to put to EU leaders to sign off on at their two-day summit starting on Thursday.
The EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said “technical level” talks between officials over the weekend had proved “constructive”, while Irish deputy premier Simon Coveney urged caution and said “we’re not there yet” - but added that “a deal is possible”.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said yesterday that there was still “a lot of work” to be done, but said talks “remain constructive”.
“In terms of the substance of the talks, I’m not going to get into those at all. I think it’s important that people are given space for the talks to progress,” he said.
Downing Street confirmed talks have taken place between the PM and the DUP, with the spokesman saying he would expect those discussions to continue. Speaking in Luxembourg, Mr Coveney said: “On Brexit the less we say now the better. But we need to give time and space to Michel Barnier and his taskforce and the British negotiating team.
“I think it’s pretty clear what we’re trying to do, but there are pretty detailed technical discussions now and I think we need to give the time and space for that to happen. Hopefully we can make progress today on those.”
He added: “The message I would give is that we need to be cautious. This is not an easy job. We’ve spent three years trying to get an agreement between the two sides and have made progress at different times.
“But certainly the last number of months have been difficult. So I think, as my Taoiseach has said, a deal is possible, and it’s possible this month, may even be possible
this week. But we’re not there yet.
“And, as Michel Barnier said yesterday, there’s still a lot of work to do, so I hope that we can make more progress today.”
The sticking point remains the issue of the Northern Ireland backstop intended to guarantee there is no return of a hard border with the Republic.
Mr Barnier was reported to have raised concern about the complexity of a British plan to keep Northern Ireland in the UK customs territory while avoiding the need for border controls.
There were reported to be doubts about the feasibility of the scheme which was said to involve tracking goods as they move through Northern Ireland and later determining the tariff.