EU sees hope in Brexit talks with U.K.’s exit on the horizon

BRUSSELS» Despite having only days to bridge wide divisions over Brexit, the European Union maintained a semblance of hope Wednesday that the acrimonious fight over Great Britain’s departure from the bloc could somehow still be settled amicably.

Across the European Parliament, voices resonated with frustration that one of the most important events for both the EU and the U.K. in decades had turned into a tone-deaf dialogue only three weeks before Great Britain’s planned Oct. 31 departure.

EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he was working together with EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on a last-gasp solution.

“Personally, I don’t exclude a deal. Michel and myself are working on a deal,” Juncker said.

He refused to be more specific but made clear that Brexit talks between the two sides haven’t come to an irreparable standstill.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed to take his country out of the EU on Oct. 31 with or without a divorce deal. If Great Britain does leave, it will be the first EU nation to exit the bloc, ending almost half a century of U.K. membership that brought economic and diplomatic clout to both sides.

For now, Juncker insisted Johnson needed to stop pouring all the blame on the EU for the negotiating standstill. On Tuesday, Johnson’s Downing Street office claimed EU intransigence had made it “essentially impossible” for the U.K. to leave with a deal.

“We are not accepting this blame game that started in London,” Juncker said.

Johnson, who took office in July after British lawmakers rejected the Brexit deal of his predecessor Theresa May three times, delivered his own Brexit proposals to the bloc last week.

Great Britain is seeking to renegotiate May’s rejected divorce deal to loosen the economic ties binding the U.K. to the bloc while ensuring there is no hard border between EU member Ireland and the U.K.’s Northern Ireland.

Barnier said the U.K.’s ideas were fundamentally flawed because they would mean imposing customs checks on the island of Ireland, and because they gave Northern Ireland’s regional authority a veto on how to proceed.

“The proposal of the British government as things stand is not something we can accept,” he said.