Law chief in Brussels talks to break the backstop deadlock

ATTORNEY-GENERAL Geoffrey Cox will travel to Brussels today to lock horns again with EU negotiators over the controversial Irish backstop.

Senior EU sources said both sides are struggling with the ‘semantic’ challenge of agreeing a form of words which will please both the UK and Ireland.

Britain has been insisting on an end date or unilateral exit clause to the backstop to ensure it is not trapped in a customs union with the bloc indefinitely.

But Dublin has blocked the demands, saying they would render the backstop – an insurance policy designed to keep the Irish border open – pointless.

Senior sources in Brussels say Britain is privately giving up on the demands and that efforts are focused on adding a legally binding document to the Brexit deal which would show the backstop ‘is not a prison’.

The focus is on plans for how alternative arrangements – including technological ones for cross-border trade combined with bilateral agreements on customs – could be reached that would allow the backstop to cease if triggered.

One senior source said: ‘It’s a thing that needs work, but of course in order to retain the insurance element for the Irish this has to be carefully drafted because on one hand, it can’t look like a unilateral escape clause for the UK, but on the other hand it can’t look like it’s permanently locking in the UK. That is semantically quite a challenge. It’s a difficult circle to square.’

The source added: ‘What they are looking at is something that has a legal value and that is credible enough so that the attorney-general can demonstrate to MPs that yes, the backstop is not a prison. The name of the title of the document doesn’t matter, it’s the content. So the UK is now calling it a codicil, but you can call it an additional protocol, an annexe, an interpretative text...

‘It will be used by Geoffrey Cox to demonstrate the point they want to make – that there is life after the backstop.’

Mr Cox warned in November that the backstop could ‘endure indefinitely’. It led to the Brexit deal suffering a crushing defeat in the Commons in January.

The Daily Telegraph reported yesterday that Mr Cox – Britain’s top law officer – is focusing on securing an ‘independent’ arbitration panel to provide formal notice on ending the backstop. The EU is said to be resisting the proposal. It was also reported that Mr Cox had abandoned attempts to secure a hard time-limit or unilateral exit clause.

However, he last night dismissed the reports as ‘fag ends dressed up as facts’.

Brussels sources said both sides are looking at bolstering the review mechanism for exiting the backstop.

‘A difficult circle to square’