The European Parliament's coordinator for an orderly exit of the United Kingdom from the EU, the Belgian Guy Verhofstadt, declared on Wednesday 25 September before members of the European Parliament Constitutional Affairs Committee (AFCO) that the United Kingdom had so far not presented any "legally sound proposal" on the plan for the island of Ireland and had only submitted "bits" of "potential" plans as alternatives to the infamous "backstop". "They have only mentioned SPS (Sanitary and phytosanitary requirements)", which only covers "30% of goods", added the Belgian, explaining that these plans omitted other industrial products or manufactured goods.
"We are only partially responding to an alternative, we only have bits and pieces of an alternative solution; therefore, this is not acceptable", said the European Parliament coordinator, whose steering group will meet again on the morning of Thursday 26 September, with the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier.
This meeting will take place after the House of Commons has resumed its activities on 25 September, following the landmark Supreme Court ruling (see EUROPE 12334/18) and further technical discussions were held on 25 September in Brussels.
According to the British press, Boris Johnson's government has provided a new technical document developing the first guidelines issued for controls in the field of plant protection products.
In the meantime, the European Parliament coordinator for Brexit reiterated that there was not only the problem of the backstop, but that difficulties also existed with the future declaration and the United Kingdom's temptation to diverge from European rules.
"They are proposing a political declaration with more general elements and a text that would be a free trade agreement only and would not really be based on fairly similar rules and equal treatment, but, ultimately, on more differences than commonalities", explained the MEP. But "the more differences the United Kingdom seeks, the less access it will have to the single market, it is obvious", is how the Belgian reframed the situation, considering that this was not a "negotiating tactic", but a position of common sense and protection for European companies.
The European Parliament, which has to approve the final negotiation with the United Kingdom, on 18 September adopted a new resolution on Brexit (see EUROPE 12330/1) reiterating its position. The coordinator stressed that the European Parliament would do everything to get an agreement by 31 October, but would not tolerate any mini-agreements with London, if necessary, "because it would be very damaging for the EU". "Piecemeal solutions" would be unacceptable, he said. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)