After doubts expressed by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on 2 October, it was the European Parliament and its Brexit steering board that expressed their concern on Thursday 3 October about Boris Johnson's proposals to keep Northern Ireland in a European single regulatory alignment, but leave the customs union resulting in new custom checks. (see EUROPE 12340/8).
While Jean-Claude Juncker had observed problematic aspects, such as governance (and the necessary consent of Northern Irish institutions to remain in a single regulatory alignment), the Parliament, for its part, indicated in a statement that it did not believe that the "last minute proposals of the UK government of 2 October, in their current form, represent a basis for an agreement to which the European Parliament could give consent".
"The proposals do not address the real issues that need to be resolved, if the backstop were to be removed, namely: the all-island economy, the full respect of the Good Friday Agreement and the integrity of the single market".
The Parliament has three main concerns: "First, the UK proposals on customs and regulatory aspects explicitly provide for infrastructure, controls and checks, but are unclear as to exactly where and how these would be carried out". Any form of controls and checks in and around the border would signify the end of frictionless trade and as such would harm the all-island economy as well as represent a serious risk to the peace process, and could imply a serious risk for our consumers and businesses.
Secondly, the United Kingdom's proposals would only be developed in detail by the EU and the United Kingdom or unilaterally by the United Kingdom during the transitional period. "This would mean that the European Parliament would have to agree to the protocol without knowing all its implications and without having any guarantee as to its legal functioning. This is unacceptable”.
Finally, the European Parliament has a problem with the right of consent offered to the Northern Ireland Assembly which "effectively makes an agreement contingent, uncertain, provisional, unilateral, instead of the safety net provided for by the backstop". The Parliament made sure to recall that the Assembly has not sat since at least 2017 and therefore wonders whether this Assembly "would be able to reconvene and take on the responsibility for an international treaty of this nature".
President Juncker was scheduled to meet Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar later today, whose colleague in Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, had already said on Thursday morning that these new proposals could not be enough to reach an agreement with the EU by 31 October.
This is also the view of the European Commission, which is waiting for the United Kingdom to get back to work and amend the proposals sent, commented Natasha Bertaud, the institution's spokesperson.
European Council President Donald Tusk also said on his Twitter account he was "unconvinced", while on 3 October, Member State ambassadors were also expected to discuss these new proposals. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)