The EU is attempting to rebrand the Irish border backstop, while the UK appears set on redefining the terms of reference for Brexit – in their entirety.
There have been positive signals on Brexit this week, with Commission president Jean Claude-Juncker telling Sky News that “we can do a deal”, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar describing the “mood music” as good, and Brexit secretary Steven Barclay speaking of a sense of “common purpose” to avoid a no-deal disaster. Meanwhile, the Democratic Unionist Party is coming around to the idea of a Northern Ireland-specific regime, at least for agri-food products.
But there are mixed messages – or wilful misunderstandings, perhaps – and in some ways, it feels as if the talks have regressed to 2017, when the EU insisted that divorce and trade talks be strictly separated. In a speech in Madrid this week, Mr Barclay attempted to push the deadline for alternatives to the Irish border backstop until “the end of the implementation period in December 2020”, adding that it would be “shaped by the future relationship”. “Why risk crystallising an undesirable result this November, when both sides can work together until December 2020?”, Mr Barclay.
Finnish prime minister Antti Rinne has suggested the UK table written proposals on how to keep the Irish border open by 30 September (presumably so that negotiating teams and parliaments have time to weight them). But Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney believes the UK is trying to “change the debate” on Brexit, and labelled some of the recent commentary as “spin”.
The problem is that the UK's pledge to “ditch” the backstop is distracting from the very real (and very complex) conundrum of how to preserve links between Ireland and Northern Ireland after 31 October. This is not only about trade. It is about joint healthcare policy, shared energy resources, transport links, waterways, education systems and countless markers of what Dublin calls the “all-island economy". It is not only about agri-food regulation, but countless other EU rules and customs arrangements.
Irish MEP Mairead McGuinness said on Friday that Mr Barclay's comments were “very unhelpful” and that any UK solutions mooted so far would only tackle 30% of the problem. A “series of confidential technical non-papers” tabled by the UK on Thursday does not amount to “serious proposals”, Mr Coveney added (EUROPE 12331/3). EU diplomats were to be briefed on the papers on Friday.
Mr Juncker says he is not wedded to the backstop itself. “If the objectives are met – all of them – then we don't need the backstop,” he said this week. But it’s unlikely that a backstop, by any other name, would smell as sweet (to either side).
Technical teams from the EU and UK will meet again in Brussels early next week to continue working on the detail. (Sarah Collins)