Brexit: Stop 'pretending' to negotiate, EU's Michel Barnier tells Boris Johnson
The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator has told Boris Johnson to stop “pretending” he is negotiating a Brexit deal, amid concerns that the prime minister is not trying to reach an agreement.
It comes after reports that proposals brought to Brussels by UK negotiators amounted to the old agreement, with the section on the Irish backstop simply crossed out in the text.
Speaking in the European Parliament Michel Barnier said: “Almost three years after the UK referendum, I don’t think we should be spending time pretending to negotiate. I think we need to move forward with determination.”
Mr Barnier said the EU was “open to any UK proposal and are willing to work day and night towards progress”, adding: ”If the UK leaves without a deal, I would recall that these questions don’t just disappear. They have been regulated in the withdrawal agreement, they have been covered – but they still remain. Whether we’re talking about the peace in Ireland, citizens’ rights, budgetary issues, they would all need to be settled.”
The EU has asked the UK to present proposals to replace the Irish backstop, which Mr Johnson says he wants to scrap. But with a 30-day deadline that Mr Johnson set for himself in Berlin almost exhausted, the UK has yet to present anything.
Speaking in the same debate, Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, said: ”I said to prime minister Johnson that I have no emotional attachment to the backstop but I stand by the objectives it’s designed to achieve. I called on the PM to come forward with operational proposals in writing for practical steps which would allow us to achieve those objectives.”
Although it has not presented full proposals, the UK has come forward with one idea: a theoretical veto for Northern Ireland on any backstop replacement. This plan was however dismissed by Guy Verhofstadt on Wednesday as ”a permanent instrument for blackmailing” the EU during negotiations.
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