UK’S failure over backstop alternative puts no deal closer than ever, says EU
Barclay and Barnier clash as Brexit Secretary insists that some member states are open to new solutions
THE European Commission yesterday told EU-27 diplomats a no-deal Brexit had never been closer after Stephen Barclay dismissed Michel Barnier’s vow that the EU would never renegotiate the Irish border backstop.
He said the EU’S chief Brexit negotiator’s claim was not what he had heard from several EU capitals – that they were interested in seeing the UK’S plans. The Brexit Secretary told Germany’s Die Welt newspaper: “They are open to creative and flexible solutions.”
It came as Boris Johnson hinted yesterday that he was open to an all-ireland food standards zone on the island to help prevent a hard border after Brexit.
He meets Leo Varadkar, the Taoiseach, in Dublin on Monday. But several Brussels sources confirmed Britain had yet to put forward a single concrete alternative plan to the backstop.
Stephanie Riso, a senior member of Michel Barnier’s team, told diplomats that Brussels was ready to hear UK proposals to break the deadlock over the Irish border backstop before the Oct 31 deadline. “On the other hand we have been waiting for quite a while for different ideas and proposals and these haven’t come forward,” she said.
David Frost, the Prime Minister’s top Brexit official, is due in Brussels for talks today, and possibly Friday, but expectations of a breakthrough were low.
“The commission debriefed member states on the recent contacts and the last meeting with Frost. The long and short of it is no concrete proposals, not even a sketch of them yet,” an EU source said. In meetings last week, Mr Frost repeated the UK desire for a clean break with the EU with no single market or customs union membership and for a Canada-style free trade agreement, which would give room for London to diverge from EU regulation.
But he ignored pleas from Brussels for concrete plans for a backstop consistent with the Withdrawal Agreement. An EC spokesman said a no-deal Brexit was “a very distinct possibility” and confirmed the EU was insisting the backstop would not be renegotiated.
Mr Johnson told MPS that the chances of a deal had increased and the Government had insisted it was making progress. But the EC confirmed no substantive progress had been made. After a high-profile defection cost Mr Johnson his majority, one diplomat told The Telegraph: “It seems futile to continue discussions. We can’t be sure that whatever were to come out of it will ever translate into reality.”
♦ EU nationals coming to the UK after a no-deal Brexit will only have three years’ leave to remain here. The news was announced in The Spectator but last night confirmed by the Home Office. Those arriving before the end of 2020 will automatically have the right to stay for 36 months but the countdown will kick in from Dec 31, 2020, meaning they can stay longer than three years. It replaces the EU’S freedom of movement rules.