UK rebuffs EU call for Brexit solution
Published on: Saturday, September 21, 2019
By: AFP
HELSINKI: The European Union’s Finnish presidency demanded that Britain deliver a written new Brexit proposal by the end of September or face a messy “no-deal” divorce—an ultimatum immediately rejected by London.Britain is racing toward its October 31 departure without an exit agreement and facing the threat of border disruptions that the government admits could cause food shortages and spark civil unrest.
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The sides have been irreconcilably split over ways to avoid a hard border between EU member Ireland and the UK’s Northern Ireland in any Brexit scenario.
An agreement that includes the so-called “backstop” would temporarily keep Britain in the bloc’s customs union and has been repeatedly rejected by the UK parliament.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed to come up with a new solution—and not to sign any in which the backstop remains.
He has also spooked the markets by threatening to deliver a “do or die” Brexit in which Britain leaves without any arrangements for what comes next.
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This solution is popular with his core supporters in the ruling Conservative party and could boost Johnson’s hand in a snap election that many predict for the coming months.
Brussels has rejected London’s past suggestions for the Irish border issue and has called for a clear alternative well before Johnson attends a potentially decisive EU summit in Brussels on October 17-18.
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A spokesman for the Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne said “the UK must come up with a written proposal by the end of this month”.
Finland holds the EU’s rotating presidency and occasionally speaks for the bloc.
But a Downing Street spokesman said London would spell out its views when it was ready—and when Brussels adopted a more constructive tone.
“We will table formal written solutions when we are ready, not according to an artificial deadline, and when the EU is clear that it will engage constructively on them,” the UK government spokesman said.
The latest salvo in the ongoing war of words between London and Brussels was fired despite reports of feverish negotiations being held in various European capitals.
European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker told Britain’s Sky News television that the EU was open to dropping the backstop if Johnson’s government came up with a fail-safe alternative.
“If the objectives are met—all of them—we don’t need the backstop,” Juncker said.
“If the results are there, I don’t care about the instrument.”
The British government spokesman said London has submitted “a series of
confidential technical non-papers” with its thoughts on the dispute.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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