No ‘backsliding’ for UK on the Brexit backstop
EU Brexit group says Britain must commit on Irish border
FIX the Irish border issue or face a hard Brexit, EU lawmakers have warned.
Ireland received powerful backing on Brexit from the European Parliament yesterday days after lead EU negotiator Michel Barnier politely rejected Theresa May’s attempted Chequers solution.
The EP’s Brexit Steering Group insist that the withdrawal agreement must include a viable backstop for the border with Northern Ireland, which London has been desperately seeking to time-limit and water down after last December’s solid commitments.
‘It will accept no backsliding from past commitments,’ the group unambiguously declared in an official statement.
Ryan Heath, of Politico.eu, said the steering group’s assessment, issued yesterday, translated as: ‘We don’t trust Britain.’
The stance was taken after the steering group, with leading figures like Guy Verhofstadt in its ranks, was briefed on the negotiations that have taken place over the last two weeks with the UK government, now represented by Dominic Raab as Brexit secretary and Jeremy Hunt as foreign secretary, following the exits of David Davis and Boris Johnson.
The steering group said it wished to reiterate the position that a successful finalisation of an agreement to provide for the UK’s orderly withdrawal, was dependent on an Irish border backstop as an essential precondition.
‘The Brexit steering group reiterates that in relation to the withdrawal agreement it will accept no backsliding from past commitments, notably those entered into in the Joint Report of December 2017. To conclude the withdrawal agreement it is essential, in particular, that it includes a “backstop”,’ ,’ the statement said.
And it pointed to a recognition of this fact by Theresa May in her letter to EU Council president Donald Tusk in March 2018, in which she agreed the backstop must avoid a hard border, protect the Good Friday Agreement and safeguard the integrity of the Single Market, Customs Union and common commercial policy. Without this backstop, the EU ‘cannot establish the terms of the future relationship’ between the European Union and the UK.
‘It is now incumbent on the UK that it no longer postpone coming forward with its own workable and legally operative proposal for a backstop,’ the European Parliament said. It repeated: ‘Without a credible, genuine and operational backstop, it will be impossible for the European Parliament to give its consent to the withdrawal agreement.’
That body must approve the final deal and it has an oversight role, with the Commission, on the work of the Barnier task force.
Mr Verhofstadt, the former Belgian prime minister who chairs the BSG, said: ‘We have yet to see a legislative proposal from the UK government, despite repeated commitments made by prime minister May. Any suggestion that the UK government will renege on the commitments it has already made only risk to undermine trust and sabotage negotiations.’
Meanwhile, the UK’s international trade secretary Liam Fox hinted he could quit cabinet if there is any attempt to delay Britain’s exit. He said extending talks beyond March would be a ‘complete betrayal’ of the referendum.
senan.molony@dailymail.ie
‘We have yet to see legislative proposal’