With Downing Street sources telling the press that a deal between the UK and EU on Brexit is now impossible, EU sources have compounded the sense of panic after reporting that the EU is not preparing any new offers for the UK in terms of a departure deal.
The announcement from EU officials comes after a report in The Times which claimed that sources in Brussels suggested that was ready to offer a mechanism for the Northern Irish assembly to leave a new backstop by 2025.
This would be used to alley the fears of the DUP who are determined to stop any kind of separation between Northern Ireland and Britain from becoming permanent.
A European source was quoted by the Times as saying: “A landing zone on consent could be a double majority within Stormont, to leave, not to continue with the arrangements after X years.”
At present, the current backstop arrangement, designed to avoid a hard border on the Island of Ireland by keeping Northern Ireland within the EU Customs Union, is the major stumbling block for a Brexit deal between the UK and EU.
However, another EU official dismissed this claim, stating, “Unfortunately, no bold new offer is coming from the EU side at this stage,” which means at present there is an impasse between the UK and EU which is highly unlikely to be overcome by the 19TH when a deal must be finalised.
The EU backing down on the backstop would be major blow for the Irish government which has repeatedly assured its citizenry that it enjoys the full and unwavering support of the EU in avoiding a hard border on the Island of Ireland.
In an attempt to mitigate any potential fallout from the claim a senior EU diplomat in Brussels added on the Times report that as far as they knew, it was not true: “We don’t know where that story came from.”
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