Boris’ Brexit compromise is debated

– British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was to brief his ministers on progress in Britain’s last-ditch efforts to strike a new Brexit agreement with the European Union yesterday.

Negotiators went behind closed doors in Brussels on Thursday for intensive talks after Johnson outlined a new set of divorce terms to Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar.

But they have little time left to succeed.

EU leaders will meet in Brussels on Thursday and Friday for a summit held under the pressures of the October 31 Brexit deadline. They would ideally like to have a full proposal to vote on.

But the sides are trying to achieve in a few days what they failed to in the more than three years since Britons first voted to leave the EU after nearly 50 years.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was to discuss the available options with French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday and the bloc’s Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, briefed EU ambassadors on the state of play last night.

The few details that have leaked suggest a compromise around the contentious Irish border issue that keeps Britain’s Northern Ireland partially aligned with EU customs rules.

Whether such a fudge will suit Brussels and Brexit backers in parliament, who must still approve a deal, should become clearer in the coming days.

Johnson rose to power in July on a promise not to extend Brexit for a third time, even for a few weeks.

Breaking that pledge could come back to haunt him in an early general election that most predict for the coming months. – AFP

Picture: AFP HIGH GROUND. Fire department workers evacuate residents from a flooded area in Date, Fukushima, one day after typhoon Hagibis swept through central and eastern Japan. At least 20 people are dead and 15 others are missing, officials said.