Merkel drops hint of a ‘creative’ Brexit compromise

TOKYO/BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday offered a way to break the deadlock over the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, calling for a creative compromise to allay concerns over the future of Irish border arrangements.

The United Kingdom is due under British and European law to leave the EU in just 53 days, yet Prime Minister Theresa May wants last-minute changes to a divorce deal agreed with the EU last November to win over lawmakers in the British parliament.

May is seeking legally binding changes to the deal to replace the Northern Irish backstop, an insurance policy that aims to prevent the reintroduction of a hard border between EU-member Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland.

While Merkel said she did not want the so-called Withdrawal Agreement renegotiated, she added that difficult questions could be resolved with creativity, the strongest hint to date that the EU’s most powerful leader could be prepared to compromise.

“There are definitely options for preserving the integrity of the single market even when Northern Ireland isn’t part of it, because it is part of Britain while at the same time meeting the desire to have – if possible – no border controls,” Merkel said.

“To solve this point you have to be creative and listen to each other, and such discussions can and must be conducted,” Merkel said at a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo.