Brexit talks fail to yield breakthrough with timely deal feared 'impossible'
Source: The Guardian
Brexit talks fail to yield breakthrough with timely deal feared impossible
Barnier warns negotiations may have to continue as UKs Irish border plans are an untested risk
Daniel Boffey and Jennifer Rankin in Brussels, Heather Stewart
Sun 13 Oct 2019 19.55 BST
First published on Sun 13 Oct 2019 17.19 BST
A breakthrough in the Brexit talks has failed to materialise after a weekend of intensive negotiations, with European Union capitals concluding that it may now be impossible for the UK to leave the EU by 31 October with a deal.
In a briefing to EU ambassadors on Sunday evening, the EUs chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, raised the prospect of the talks having to continue after the forthcoming leaders summit on Thursday, such was the lack of progress.
Barnier told diplomats for the member states that the latest British customs proposals for the Irish border remained an untested risk that the bloc could not countenance. He said that it would require a fresh political impulse from Johnson for a deal to be realisable this week.
On the UKs proposed Stormont veto on Northern Ireland staying in the EUs single market for goods, the Irish representative told the room that such an arrangement was not a notion that is included in the Good Friday agreement.
A Brexit extension whether technical if the two sides get close to a deal in late October or longer to accommodate a general election was raised in the EU27s discussions for the first time in months.
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Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/13/barnier-warns-brexit-talks-have-been-difficult-amid-pessimism-over-deal