Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s demand that the European Union reopen the Brexit divorce deal was rebuffed on Tuesday by the bloc, which said Britain had failed to propose any realistic alternative to an agreed insurance policy for the Irish border.
After more than three years of Brexit crisis, the United Kingdom is heading towards a showdown with the EU as Johnson has vowed to leave the bloc on October 31 without a deal unless it agrees to renegotiate the divorce terms.
The bloc has repeatedly refused to reopen the Withdrawal Agreement, which includes a protocol on the Irish border “backstop” that then-prime minister Theresa May agreed in November Reuters said.
In his opening bid to the EU ahead of meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Johnson wrote a four-page letter to European Council President Donald Tusk.
“I propose that the backstop should be replaced with a commitment to put in place (alternative) arrangements as far as possible before the end of the transition period, as part of the future relationship,” Johnson wrote. “Time is very short.”
Tusk said Johnson had proposed no realistic alternatives, and the European Commission took a similar line, though the EU’s most powerful leaders Merkel and Macron had yet to comment.
“Those against the backstop and not proposing realistic alternatives in fact support re-establishing a border. Even if they do not admit it,” Tusk tweeted.
Britain’s pound, sensitive to the prospects of a no-deal departure, promptly fell to near three-year lows against the euro and the dollar.
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European diplomats expect little progress on Brexit until the British domestic landscape becomes clearer when parliament returns on Sept. 3 a point after which the opposition Labour Party has vowed to try to collapse Johnson’s government.
With British politics in such turmoil, it is still unclear how, when or indeed if the United Kingdom will leave the EU. Many expect an election within months.
With such uncertainty, some suspect perfidy in London.
A diplomat from one EU country told Reuters that Johnson’s letter was “pure PR” and not meant to spur constructive talks but rather set the stage for a “blame game” with the EU.
The riddle of what to do about Ireland’s 500-km (300-mile) land border with the British province of Northern Ireland remains has repeatedly imperiled Brexit talks.
The EU wants to ensure that its only land border with the United Kingdom after Brexit does not become a back door for goods to enter the EU’s single market – which guarantees the free movement of goods, capital, services, and labor.
But Ireland says checks could undermine the 1998 Good Friday agreement, which brought peace after more than 3,600 died in a three-decade conflict between unionists who wanted Northern Ireland to remain British and Irish nationalists who want Northern Ireland to join a united Ireland ruled from Dublin.
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