The European Commission reported on Thursday 19 September that it had received written documents from the United Kingdom on alternatives to the Irish backstop aimed at preventing the return of a physical border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.
While Jean-Claude Juncker had once again stressed, on 16 September, that written proposals should be sent to Michel Barnier's team, Boris Johnson's government therefore seems to have fulfilled this task.
"But we will still have to look in detail at these papers to characterise them as more than just working papers", said Mina Andreeva, the institution's spokesperson, who said that these documents will form the basis for new political discussions planned for September 20 between Michel Barnier and Stephen Barclay, the Secretary of State in charge of Brexit.
These discussions will focus on "some aspects of customs, manufactured goods and sanitary and phytosanitary rules," Andreeva said.
The spokesperson also announced that Jean-Claude Juncker and Boris Johnson had spoken again on 18 September, with the President recalling that the EU is determined to reach an agreement and reiterating that the 16 September meeting was "friendly, positive and constructive".
On 18 September, European Parliament President David Sassoli also announced that Boris Johnson had called him and invited him to London. Boris Johnson, according to the Parliament statement, "expressed his wish to find a positive agreement on the United Kingdom's departure from the EU" and this is "also the wish" of President Sassoli.
This call came in the wake of the European Parliament’s adoption of a new resolution rejecting the responsibility of a no-deal Brexit on the United Kingdom and reiterating Parliament's support for the existing withdrawal agreement with the backstop for the island of Ireland (see EUROPE 12330/1).
"President Sassoli stressed that Parliament's priorities remain to guarantee citizens' rights and to protect the peace process in Northern Ireland", the European Parliament statement said. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)