No breakthrough after Johnson’s EU meeting

LUXEMBOURG — Boris Johnson was booed by protesters and berated by Luxembourg’s leader on a visit to the tiny nation Monday for his first facetoface talks with European Union chief JeanClaude Juncker about securing an elusive Brexit deal.

On a day of commotion and conflicting signals, Johnson pulled out of a news conference because of noisy antiBrexit demonstrators, leaving Luxembourg’s prime minister standing alone next to an empty lectern as he addressed the media.

Still, Johnson insisted there was a strong chance of securing a divorce agreement before Britain is due to leave the 28nation bloc in just over six weeks.

“Yes, there is a good chance of a deal. Yes, I can see the shape of it,” Johnson asserted at a separate appearance before reporters at the British ambassador’s residence.

EU leaders were far more skeptical.

After a twohour lunch meeting over fish and risotto in Juncker’s native Luxembourg, the European Commission said that Britain had yet to offer any “legally operational” solutions to the problem of keeping goods and people flowing freely across the Irish border, the main roadblock to a deal.

“Such proposals have not yet been made,” the commission said in a statement, adding that officials “will remain available to work 24/7.”

Johnson says the United Kingdom will leave the EU on the scheduled date of Oct. 31 with or without a Brexit divorce deal. He hopes to strike a revised agreement with the bloc at an EU summit on Oct. 1718, in time for an orderly departure. The agreement made by his predecessor, Theresa May, was rejected three times by Britain’s Parliament, prompting her to resign.

The key sticking point to a Brexit deal is the socalled “backstop,” an insurance policy in May’s agreement intended to guarantee an open border between EU member Ireland and the United Kingdom’s Northern Ireland. That is vital both to the local economy and to Northern Ireland’s peace process.

British Brexit supporters oppose the backstop because it keeps the United Kingdom bound to EU trade rules.