British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, on Tuesday 1 October, that he intends to make real proposals to Brussels on the Irish border issue very "soon", which will provide for "a single territory for agriculture, for sanitary, phytosanitary and for agri-foods and that is a big concession by the UK government", he said in an interview with the BBC. These avenues, he said, would provide a "solution".
But he refused to give more details and did not want to confirm documents leaked the day before in the Irish media, in particular in RTE, according to which the British government would consider placing customs clearance sites a few kilometres on both sides of the Irish border. Boris Johnson felt that they did not reflect his plans.
The European Commission, for its part, has refused to comment on these "documents supposedly in circulation"; it has still "not received" any real proposals from London, reiterated Mina Andreeva, the Commission's spokesperson. Michel Barnier's team simply received four working documents that the British government specifically asked not to "share outside Michel Barnier's team".
The EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, will inform the College on 2 October about the progress of the discussions and the latest technical talks, which, these last days, were still not considered conclusive. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)