UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's new Brexit proposals regarding the Irish border issue, which are set to be announced later on Wednesday to Brussels, have already come under fire by Irish and EU officials, according to media reports
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd October, 2019) UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's new Brexit proposals regarding the Irish border issue, which are set to be announced later on Wednesday to Brussels, have already come under fire by Irish and EU officials, according to media reports.A new "final offer" for a Brexit deal was reportedly briefed to major EU capitals on Tuesday. The new "two borders for four years" plan would see Northern Ireland remaining under the EU single market regulations until 2025, but at the same time there would be a customs border, albeit with light checks and controls.
"Unacceptable and unworkable. U.K. is reneging on commitments made to citizens on the island of Ireland that there would be no hard border. This would set our country back years. You would have to question if PM Johnson is genuinely serious about getting a deal, this suggests not," Lisa Chambers, Brexit spokesperson for the Irish centrist Fianna Fail party, said on Twitter while commenting on the proposal.
Helen McEntee, Ireland's European affairs minister, said that Dublin would reject the proposed deal.
"What we are talking about again is picking and choosing certain parts of the single market that would be aligned in Northern Ireland. It is talking about a time limit, which again is not acceptable," she said, as quoted by The Guardian newspaper.
According to an EU official, the proposal would put peace in Northern Ireland under threat, and at the same time, fail to achieve the objectives of the Irish backstop.
"There is a difference in the starting point. We want to avoid the border and checks and controls. And the other side are saying, 'No we will need some kind of controls, one way or another', which is difficult for us to accept as it runs into the clear goal of the stability of the island of Ireland," an EU diplomat told The Guardian.
Philippe Lamberts, a member of the European parliament's Brexit steering group, doubted that Johnson could even get his offer approved by the UK parliament's lower house.
"We are in a worse situation than [when] we were facing Theresa May because at least Theresa May had a working majority ... The last thing the EU wants to do is to make concessions that won't fly in Westminster. My interpretation of Boris Johnson's actions since being prime minister is to take the United Kingdom out of the European Union without a deal but with the opportunity to shift the blame to someone else," he said, as quoted by the newspaper.
Johnson came to power in July, succeeding Theresa May who resigned over her failure to get approval from lawmakers for the Brexit deal that was agreed upon with the bloc. Since assuming office, Johnson has been saying that the United Kingdom would have to leave the European Union on the latest agreed deadline on October 31, even if a withdrawal deal is not reached.
