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Boris Johnson signals major U-turn on Irish border in Brexit talks | |
(about 4 hours later) | |
Boris Johnson has signalled to the EU that he would make a major U-turn on his plans for the Irish border to successfully secure a 48-hour window of intensive negotiations over a potential Brexit deal. | |
EU diplomats gave the green light to a weekend of talks after being told by the bloc’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, that Johnson seemed to better understand the importance of not having a customs border on the island of Ireland. | |
“Barnier said that the UK seemed to now accept that a deal involving a customs border on the island of Ireland was not possible,” according to an EU source. | |
In a pooled television clip released on Friday afternoon, the prime minister appeared to echo that briefing by refusing to say whether Northern Ireland would definitely leave the customs union. | |
“I think it would be wrong of me to give a running commentary on the negotiations,” he said. “With the greatest possible respect I think, look at everything I’ve said previously. I think you can draw your own conclusions from that. But let our negotiators get on.” | |
Johnson said: “I can certainly tell you that under no circumstances will we see anything that damages the ability of the whole of the United Kingdom to take full advantage of Brexit, and I think that’s what people would expect, and that’s what I think we can achieve.” | |
Inside the EU, both Ireland and Northern Ireland are part of the single market and customs union so share the same regulations and standards, allowing a soft or invisible border between the two. | |
Britain’s exit from the EU – taking Northern Ireland with it – risks a return to a hard or policed border. The only way to avoid this post-Brexit is for regulations on both sides to remain more or less the same in key areas including food, animal welfare, medicines and product safety. | |
The 'backstop' in Theresa May's Withdrawal Agreement was intended to address this - stating that if no future trade agreement could be reached between the EU and the UK, then rules and regulations would stay as they are. This has been rejected by Brexit supporters as a 'trap' to keep the UK in the EU's customs union, which would prevent the UK striking its own independent trade deals. | |
There are an estimated 72m road vehicle crossings a year between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and about 14% of those crossings are consignments of goods, some of which may cross the border several times before they reach a consumer. Brexit supporters say this can be managed by doing checks on goods away from the border, but critics say it will be difficult to police this without any physical infrastructure like border posts of cameras, which could raise tensions in the divided communities of Ireland. | |
Interactive: A typical hour in the life of the Irish border | |
In EU capitals there remains considerable doubt that there is a viable solution in the pipeline that could be signed off by leaders at an EU summit next Thursday. “You don’t reinvent the wheel in five days,” said one senior diplomat. | |
A working dinner between the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, at the Élysée Palace on Sunday night is being seen on both sides as a pivotal make or break moment for any agreement. | |
Barnier is due to update the European parliament on Monday and EU ministers in Luxembourg the following day. He did not go into details of the UK’s new thinking on the Irish border in talks with the EU ambassadors following a two-hour breakfast with the Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay. | |
EU sources said it was too soon to tell whether Johnson was ready to return to the EU’s original offer of a Northern Ireland-only backstop, a proposal that would leave the region in an EU customs union following many European single market rules. | |
On Friday, the prime minister twice refused to say that Northern Ireland would leave the EU’s customs territory with the rest of the UK. | |
“I can certainly tell you that under no circumstances will we see anything that damages the ability of the whole of the United Kingdom to take full advantage of Brexit,” he said. | |
A European commission spokesman formally announced the intensification of talks, as first revealed by the Guardian, in a statement reasserting its unmoved position. | |
“The EU and the UK have agreed to intensify discussions over the coming days,” the commission’s statement said. “The EU’s position remains the same: there must be a legally operative solution in the withdrawal agreement that avoids a hard border on the island of Ireland, protects the all-island economy and the Good Friday (Belfast) agreement in all its dimensions, and safeguards the integrity of the single market.” | |
EU diplomats said “ideas” and “elements” had been raised by Barclay that would “allow the negotiation teams to continue their efforts in search of a positive outcome”. | |
Earlier in the day, the European council president, Donald Tusk, said he had set the prime minister an ultimatum of presenting new Brexit proposals by Friday or “no more chances”. | |
He cautiously welcomed developments in Wirral on Wednesday when the British prime minister and his Irish counterpart, Leo Varadkar, concluded their talks by saying they could see a “pathway” to an agreement. | |
Tusk warned, however, that “time was practically up” and there was “no guarantee” of success. | |
“Prime Minister Johnson promised the EU to come forward with a solution that would work for all,” he said. “A solution that would not only satisfy the hardcore Brexiters but also solve our well-known and legitimate objectives: to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, to protect the Good Friday agreement, and ensure the integrity of the single market. | “Prime Minister Johnson promised the EU to come forward with a solution that would work for all,” he said. “A solution that would not only satisfy the hardcore Brexiters but also solve our well-known and legitimate objectives: to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, to protect the Good Friday agreement, and ensure the integrity of the single market. |
“Unfortunately we are still in a situation in which the UK has not come forward with a workable realistic proposal.” | “Unfortunately we are still in a situation in which the UK has not come forward with a workable realistic proposal.” |
A customs union means that countries agree to apply no or very low tariffs to goods sold between them, and to collectively apply the same tariffs to imported goods from the rest of the world. International trade deals are then negotiated by the bloc as a whole. | |
For the EU, this means deals are negotiated by by Brussels, although individual member state governments agree the mandate and approve the final deal. The EU has trade deals covering 69 countries, including Canada and South Korea, which the UK has been struggling to roll over into post-Brexit bilateral agreements. | |
Proponents of an independent UK trade policy outside the EU customs union say Britain must forge its own deals if it is to take advantage of the world’s fastest-growing economies. However they have never explained why Germany manages to export more than three times the value in goods to China than Britain does, while also being in the EU customs union. | |
Jennifer Rankin | |
Tusk said he told Johnson a week ago that “if there were no such proposals by today I would announce publicly that there are no more chances – because of objective reasons – for a deal for the incoming European council””.“However, yesterday, when the Irish taoiseach and the UK prime minister met they both saw for the first time a pathway to a deal. I have received promising signals from the taoiseach that a deal is still possible.” | Tusk said he told Johnson a week ago that “if there were no such proposals by today I would announce publicly that there are no more chances – because of objective reasons – for a deal for the incoming European council””.“However, yesterday, when the Irish taoiseach and the UK prime minister met they both saw for the first time a pathway to a deal. I have received promising signals from the taoiseach that a deal is still possible.” |
Tusk added that there was “no guarantee of success and the time is practically up, but even the slightest chance must be used”. “A no-deal Brexit will never be the choice of the EU”, he said. | |
The key sticking points are twofold: Downing Street’s insistence until now that there will be a customs border on the island of Ireland, and the mechanism for gaining democratic consent for Northern Ireland’s continued alignment with the EU’s single market in goods. | |
Dublin has insisted it will not accept the extra checks and controls that would result from there being two customs territories. The UK’s proposals for consent are viewed as giving the Democratic Unionist party a unilateral veto over Northern Ireland’s alignment with the EU’s rules. | Dublin has insisted it will not accept the extra checks and controls that would result from there being two customs territories. The UK’s proposals for consent are viewed as giving the Democratic Unionist party a unilateral veto over Northern Ireland’s alignment with the EU’s rules. |
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