"No deal" (Brexit) - Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

Fears mount a no-deal Brexit could lead to more chaos in EU economies

Guy Faulconbridge — Sat, 05 Sep 2020 07:51:03 +0000

Boris Johnson says the UK is ready for any eventuality

The chances of the UK leaving the European Union without a trade deal have risen sharply as negotiations have been threatened by London’s insistence that it have full autonomy over its state-aid plans, according to negotiators and diplomats.

Fears in Dublin, London, Brussels and other European capitals are mounting that a UK exit without a trade deal could sow yet more economic chaos amid the turmoil of the coronavirus crisis which has hammered European economies.

“The chances for a deal, or a no-deal, are 50/50,” said one senior EU diplomat. “There has been absolutely no movement from the British side in the talks. If this approach doesn’t change quickly, we won’t be able to negotiate a deal in time.”

Failure to reach a trade deal could hammer financial markets as nearly a trillion dollars in trade – from car parts and medicines to lamb and fish – would be thrown into turmoil.

A British source close to the negotiations said the European Union was slowing down negotiations and should understand that its demands on state aid and fishing were not compatible with the UK’s status as an independent country.

“We have also consistently tried to move discussions forwards but have been prevented from doing so by an EU which insists everything must go at the pace of the most difficult issue,” the source said.

“Their ask that we accept continuity with EU state-aid and fisheries policy is simply not compatible with our status as a fully independent country,” the source said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said if the EU was sensible, it would give the UK the Canada-style solution it is seeking. He also said the UK was ready for any eventuality over Brexit.

European Council President Charles Michel told reporters: “Sooner or later, the UK should clarify what they want. It’s not possible to leave the European club and at the same time keep all the benefits. We have no certainty that we’ll reach a deal,” he said.

The current sticking point is state aid.

EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier went to London on Tuesday to tell his UK counterpart, David Frost, that the UK must move on state aid, or there will not be an agreement, according to EU diplomats.

Afterwards, Mr Barnier said London had not shown enough flexibility and creativity on fair competition, fisheries and solving disputes in order to seal a deal on new trade ties by a “strict deadline” of the end of October.

Source: https://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/britain/fears-mount-a-no-deal-brexit-could-lead-to-more-chaos-in-eu-economies-39504901.html

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Germany ‘ditches plan for EU Brexit talks’ amid concern over lack of progress

Politics Home — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 07:46:38 +0000

German Chancellor Angela Merkel. (PA)

Germany has reportedly scrapped plans to discuss Brexit at a high-level meeting next week because Britain and the EU have made no “tangible progress” over the summer.

According to The Guardian, Germany — which holds the rotating presidency of the EU council — had intended to discuss Britain’s departure at a September 2 meeting of ambassadors.

But the issue is said to have been removed from the agenda after weeks of talks in which the two sides remained deadlocked on a host of issues.

An EU diplomat told the title: “Since there hasn’t been any tangible progress in EU-UK negotiations, the Brexit item was taken off the agenda.”

The move follows downbeat statements last Friday from both the EU and UK chief negotiators after the latest round of negotiations.

Michel Barnier, the bloc’s Brexit lead, said a post-Brexit trade deal “seems unlikely”, and said he was “disappointed” at the state of the talks.

On the UK side, David Frost said the EU had made it “unnecessarily difficult” to make progress and called for movement on a host of issues before “substantive work can be done in any other area of the negotiation, including on legal texts”.

The UK is pushing for any agreement to respect its regulatory autonomy and status as an independent coastal state now it has left the EU.

But Brussels has been adamant that any deal cannot see Britain undercut its environmental and worker standards or state aid rules.

Failure to strike a deal, which the EU wants done by October, would leave the two sides trading on World Trade Organization terms, imposing a host of tariffs and quotas once the current transition period covering their relationship expires at the end of this year.

Source: https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/germany-ditches-plan-for-eu-brexit-talks-amid-concern-over-lack-of-progress

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Revealed: Emergency plans to protect UK if second coronavirus spike coincides with no-deal Brexit

Alan McGuinness — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 04:14:02 +0000

A Cabinet Office “reasonable worst-case scenario” document, dated July 2020, has been leaked to a national newspaper.

A government spokeswoman said it ‘reflects a responsible government ensuring we are ready for all eventualities’

Emergency plans drawn up by the government to protect the UK if a second coronavirus spike coincides with a no-deal Brexit have been revealed.

A Cabinet Office “reasonable worst-case scenario” document, dated July 2020, has been leaked to The Sun newspaper.

A government spokeswoman said it “reflects a responsible government ensuring we are ready for all eventualities”.

There could be power and petrol shortages if thousands of lorries end up stranded in Dover. File pic

The dossier warns that the military could be required to airdrop food to the Channel Islands.

The navy may be required to stop British fishermen clashing with illegal European fishing boat incursions, the document adds.

There could be power and petrol shortages in parts of the UK if thousands of lorries end up stranded in Dover, it also warns.

In addition, the assessment says shortages of medicines due to port blockages could lead to animal diseases spreading through the countryside.

It also warns of the possibility of hospitals being overwhelmed, if trade restrictions sparked by a no-deal Brexit combine with floods, flu and a second wave of coronavirus.

The prospect of town halls going bust is mentioned, along with the possibility of deploying troops on the streets if there is public disorder.

The latest available statistics show that more than 324,000 people have tested positive for the virus in the UK.

A total of 41,423 people have died in the UK within 28 days of testing positive for the disease.

Britain left the EU in January after 47 years of membership and is currently in an 11-month transition period, which means it is continuing to follow the bloc’s rules and regulations.

This time frame is being used to negotiate a free trade agreement and sort out the terms of the future relationship that will govern ties between the UK and the EU moving forward.

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Both sides have said a deal needs to be agreed by October in order for it to be ratified in time, but so far there has been no breakthrough.

Speaking after the latest round of talks finished earlier this week, EU negotiator Michel Barnier said it felt “as if we were going backwards more than forwards”.

UK negotiator David Frost said that while the latest negotiations in Brussels had been “useful”, there had been “little progress”.

Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove said: “We got Brexit done with a great deal in January and we are working flat out to make sure the United Kingdom is ready for the changes and huge opportunities at the end of the year as we regain our political and economic independence for the first time in almost 50 years.

“Part of this work includes routine contingency planning for various scenarios that we do not think will happen, but we must be ready for come what may.

“Whether we trade with the EU on terms similar to Canada or to Australia, a brighter future awaits as we forge our own path.”

A government spokeswoman added that “intensive planning is under way to help ensure that businesses and citizens are ready to take advantage of the opportunities and changes” that leaving the bloc’s single market and customs union will bring.

She continued: “As a responsible government we continue to make extensive preparations for a wide range of scenarios, including the reasonable worst case.

“This is not a forecast or prediction of what will happen but rather a stretching scenario.

“It reflects a responsible government ensuring we are ready for all eventualities.”

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/revealed-emergency-plans-to-protect-uk-if-second-coronavirus-spike-coincides-with-no-deal-brexit-12055049

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How COVID and Brexit put the Kibosh on Business investment

David Smith — Sun, 19 Jul 2020 09:55:43 +0000

My regular column is available to subscribers on www.thesundaytimes.co.uk This is an excerpt.

So far during this crisis, there has been a lot of emphasis, understandably, on what it means for the economy in general, for unemployment, and for the public finances. We know that the economy suffered a record fall in March and April, and only a modest bounce in May so is 24.5% below pre-crisis levels.

We also know that the unemployment dog has yet to bark in the official figures, where the rate is still, miraculously, below 4%, but that it surely will in coming months. As for the public finances, the question is whether government borrowing this year will be nearer to £300bn or £400bn, both previously unimaginable figures.

There has been little focus so far, however, on something that will drive future prosperity, productive business investment. Without it, there will be no recovery in productivity and no sustained rise in living standards.

Rishi Sunak eschewed measures to boost business investment in his March budget, perhaps because he thought it would be like trying to put up an umbrella in a hurricane, and his summer economic update was all about encouraging consumers to spend and firms to retain workers.

But there is a crisis for business investment, both actual and looming, and it has three causes. The first is the direct effects of the crisis and the economic damage it has caused. A few days ago the Office for Budget Responsibility, in its fiscal sustainability report, set out three scenarios for the economy.

All start from a 40% collapse in business investment in the second quarter, as projects were canceled and firms hunkered down. Only in its upside scenario, which has a rapid recovery in the economy, does business investment quickly get back to where it was pre-crisis, attaining that level in the second quarter of next year.

In both its central and downside scenarios, in contrast, it takes years before business investment gets back to pre-crisis levels and the damage is significant. In the central scenario, business investment is a cumulative 6% lower than previously expected, and its downside scenario, as the OBR puts it, “none of the lost business investment is recovered and cumulative business investment is 10% lower over the whole period”.

The second issue is the distinction between business spending and productive business investment. The Covid-19 crisis has forced firms to spend in ways that they would have had no expectation of doing a few months ago.

Spending on making premises safe, whether offices, factories, shops or other premises is considerable. Businesses are having to invest in safety, just to do what they were doing before, or in many cases a scaled-down version of what they were doing before. Forced spending alongside reduced turnover is a pretty deadly combination.

For many businesses, the calculation is straightforward. This extra spending, which also in most cases increases operating costs, crowds out productive business investment.

The third factor is a familiar one, Brexit. The 2016 referendum snuffed out a promising recovery in business investment and, even before this crisis, left it 20% below what it would otherwise have been, according to the Bank of England.

For business, the Brexit process has gone from bad to worse, from a government ambition to achieve an exit from the EU with minimum disruption to existing trading links and supply chains, to one where such disruption has become central to the Brexit that the current government is aiming for.

Vast new customs processing centres, huge lorry parks in Ashford, and a massive increase in paperwork for exporters and importers are part of the grim and bureaucratic future that form the government’s vision.

Indeed, a good rule of thumb, as some of us warned, is to take the claims of pro-Brexit politicians, and this Brexit government, and turn them on their head. Instead of less red tape, there will be a lot more, for trade and employing foreign workers. Instead of a global Britain, it is closing before our eyes. Where they claim to offer certainty, there is only uncertainty.

Though a no-deal Brexit is the worst outcome, the government’s limited ambitions for a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU are not much better. The European Commission has published a list of what will change, even if a trade deal is negotiated this year.

For trade-in goods, there will be customs controls, tariff controls, VAT and excise payments, and checks on conformity with regulatory standards. For trade in services, UK firms will have to demonstrate compliance with service standards, there will be a loss of current rail, air, and road transport licenses and an end to recognition of UK professional qualifications. The settlement for financial services is up in the air.

UK travellers will need a visa to stay in the EU for 90 days or more in any 180 day period, will lose the right to work in the EU and UK driving licences will no longer be recognized. Use of the EU pet passport will end, as will the guarantee of no roaming charges for mobile phones.

If all that happens in the event of what the government would describe as a good deal, you have to wonder. You do not have to wonder that this gives businesses another good reason not to commit to productive investment in Britain.

A no-deal Brexit would be worse. The OBR, in its scenarios, assumed that the UK and EU would “move in orderly fashion” to a “conventional free trade agreement”. If not, it said, leaving without a deal “would pose downside risks to short-and medium-term growth prospects on top of the economic challenges created by the pandemic”.

No government would want to inflict this on their economy, and on businesses that want to rebuild and invest, would they? It is a depressing fact that this government, which is far from business-friendly and has taken plenty of wrong turns in its short life, may well do so.

Source: http://www.economicsuk.com/blog/002375.html

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Germany’s Merkel says EU must prepare for no-deal Brexit

Reuters — Sun, 12 Jul 2020 11:04:42 +0000

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Germany will continue to push to seal a new partnership agreement with Britain by the end of the year, but the European Union should also prepare for an abrupt split from 2021, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday.

Britain left the EU in January and is currently in a standstill transition period with the bloc to give the two sides time to fix a new relationship in everything from trade to security.

Last week’s round of talks was cut short, with both sides saying that, while they wanted an agreement, they had yet to overcome the gulf in positions that could see Britain leaving the transition period without a trade deal.

British and EU officials meet in London this week for talks on goods, services, fisheries, governance, the so-called level playing field guarantees of fair competition and law enforcement after the two sides’ negotiators had an informal dinner.

“Progress in negotiations thus far has been slim, to put it diplomatically,” Merkel told the European Parliament as Germany assumed the EU’s rotating presidency for the rest of the year.

“We have agreed with the UK to accelerate the pace of the talks … I will continue to push for a good solution, but we should also prepare for a possibility of a no-deal scenario.”

Britain has so far rejected EU pressure to commit to close ties in areas ranging from fisheries to harmonizing competition standards – a ‘level playing field’ – since Prime Minister Boris Johnson – a key campaigner for Brexit – wants only a narrower trade deal.

A spokesman for Johnson described a dinner between Britain’s chief negotiator David Frost and the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier as “a constructive opportunity for David and Michel Barnier to meet in a more informal way ahead of the specialized sessions that are taking place today”.

On Wednesday, Barnier repeated that his team was working hard on fisheries and a level playing field – two of the elements that have blocked an agreement so far in talks.

Johnson late on Tuesday told Merkel in a telephone call that Britain would leave the transition period “on Australia terms” if no better deal was agreed. Australia does not have a comprehensive trade agreement with the EU.

Should such a no-deal emerge, some businesses say major trade and travel disruptions could ensue.

Reporting by Berlin Newsroom, Writing by Gabriela Baczynska and Elizabeth Piper; Editing by Kevin Liffey, William Maclean

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-merkel/germanys-merkel-says-eu-must-prepare-for-no-deal-brexit-idUKKBN2491WX

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EU leaders set to offer Boris Johnson three-month Brexit extension

Matt Honeycombe-Foster — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 08:43:58 +0000

The European Union is preparing to grant Britain a flexible three-month Brexit extension, according to a leaked draft of an agreement set to be signed off by Brussels.

French President Emmanuel Macron had been pushing for a short extension of around two weeks. -Credit: PA

A paper being circulated among member states, seen by The Guardian, would allow the UK to stay in the EU until 31 January 2020 – but would leave open the option of quitting the bloc earlier if MPs ratify Boris Johnson’s deal.

The Prime Minister requested an extension to the existing 31 October deadline earlier this month after MPs toughened up a law requiring him to do so if no agreement had been signed off by the Commons.

According to the leaked text, the UK would be able to leave the bloc on the first day of the month after a deal is approved.

“The period provided for in article 50 (3) TEU as extended by the European council decision (EU) 2019/584 is hereby further extended until 31 January 2020,” it states.

The document adds: “In the event that the parties to that agreement complete their respective ratification procedures and notify the depositary of the completion of these procedures in November 2019, in December 2019 or in January 2020, the withdrawal agreement will enter into force respectively on [the first of the month of the relevant month].”

The text – which is expected to be formally signed off on Monday – follows days of EU wrangling over the length of any further Brexit extension.

French President Emmanuel Macron had been pushing for a short extension of around two weeks in an attempt to put pressure on British MPs to back Mr. Johnson’s agreement.

But European Council President Donald Tusk, who has held intensive talks with EU capitals over the weekend, made the case for a longer extension.

If approved, the extension could raise the prospect of a snap general election by shutting down the possibility of a no-deal Brexit on 31 October.

Labour has so far signaled its opposition to the 12 December poll demanded by the PM, arguing that they will not do so until a no-deal Brexit is “off the table”.

MPs will be given a vote on his election bid on Monday, but it is unlikely to get the two-thirds majority – 434 votes – it needs under the Fixed Term Parliaments Act.

However, Number 10 has made clear it will “look at” an alternative joint SNP-Lib Dem plan for a Commons vote on Tuesday on whether to have an election on 9 December instead.

Source: https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/conservative-party/boris-johnson/news/107576/eu-leaders-set-offer-boris

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Macron Blocked EU’s Decision to Delay Brexit for Three Months

Ian Wishart and Nikos Chrysoloras, Bloomberg News — Fri, 25 Oct 2019 13:10:44 +0000

Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, speaks during a news conference at a European Union leaders summit in Brussels, Belgium, on Oct. 18, 2019. , Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — French President Emmanuel Macron blocked the European Union’s attempt to delay Brexit for three months, raising the prospect the U.K. might not know whether it will get an extension until just hours before it is scheduled to be ejected on Oct. 31, even without a deal.

At a meeting in Brussels on Friday morning, diplomats from the EU’s 27 remaining countries deferred a decision on the postponement. While none of them want to be been interfering in the U.K.‘s domestic politics, France is at loggerheads with the others.

Macron wants to grant a delay until Nov. 30, or even sooner, to put pressure on the House of Commons to back Boris Johnson’s deal. Other EU governments see that as too much of a gamble because it could lead to a no-deal Brexit. They are pushing to postpone Brexit until Jan. 31 to allow time for a general election.

On Thursday, Johnson said he will seek an election on Dec. 12. But to hold it, he needs the support of two-thirds of members of Parliament, and the opposition Labour party has said it will block it.

The diplomats have given themselves until Tuesday to make a decision. If they don’t, the EU could convene an emergency summit of EU leaders that would leave the U.K. hanging as time ticks down toward the country’s scheduled departure. Without a deal or an extension, the U.K. would crash out of the bloc without the economic safety net of an agreement at the end of the month.

No EU government will refuse a delay of some sort — the question is when they will decide to grant it, officials said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Ian Wishart in Brussels at iwishart@bloomberg.net; Nikos Chrysoloras in Brussels at nchrysoloras@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Edward Evans.

Source: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/macron-blocked-eu-s-decision-to-delay-brexit-for-three-months-1.1337516

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‘Britain’s been sacrificed!’ Brexit Party MEP launches ferocious attack on ‘EU superstate’

Emily Ferguson — Sun, 06 Oct 2019 08:05:20 +0000

BREXIT PARTY MEP Rupert Lowe has hit out at the EU, branding the institution a “federal superstate” that has “sacrificed Britain on the alter”.

Mr. Lowe launched a scathing attack on the European Union as he condemned the bloc for being a “fig leaf of democracy”. He criticized the EU for being “ultimately run by the French and paid for by the Germans and us” and called on Boris Johnson to leave the bloc without a deal. The Brexit Party MEP also accused the bloc of “sacrificing Britain on the alter”.

Mr. Lowe said the EU has become a “federal European superstate”.

He told Express.co.uk: “As the proudest sovereign nation in Europe we have been sacrificed on the alter by this post-war European project.

“As a result of that, a lot of our constituents have suffered massively.”

The MEP continued his attack on the bloc and saying: “[The EU] is a fig leaf of democracy. It is not a democracy.”

Rupert Lowe has hit out at the EU, branding the institution a “federal superstate” (Image: Getty/Youtube)

Rupert Lowe criticized the EU for being a ‘fig leaf of democracy’ (Image: Getty)

As a result, Mr. Lowe urges the Prime Minister to honor his pledge to leave the EU on October 31 “come what may”.

He also said Britain needed to leave without a deal, as he branded Mr. Johnson’s deal “an absolute disaster”.

He said: “I am absolutely adamant that we should leave with no deal, a clean break Brexit is right for the UK as a whole.”

He continued: “We cannot have any form of reheated Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement.

JUST IN: Brexit delay: EU leaders to ponder 14-month extension to avoid no-deal

Rupert Lowe (left) is the Brexit Party MEP for the West Midlands (Image: PA)

“It is an absolute disaster and the worst outcome for all of us.”

He said that when he met with the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier last month, he told the EU leader: “I wouldn’t sign this treaty if I had just lost to you in a war.”

Mr. Lowe also hit out at Remainers for being “entirely democratic”.

He said: “The Remain camp are disregarding the votes of 17.4 million people.

Boris Johnson sent his new Brexit plans to the EU this week (Image: PA)

“People are getting very angry because it is becoming a matter of these Remain parliamentarians who think they know better than the public.

“They are effectively hijacking democracy and trying to take control of what happens, with one aim which is to overrule the once in a lifetime referendum result.”

The Brexit Party MEP, who will run as MP for Dudley North in the next election, accused Remainers of “intellectual arrogance”, for assuming they are right.

He said: “It’s not their job to think they are right it is their job to enact the democratic will of the people.”

Brexit Countdown calendar (Image: Express)

Mr. Lowe warned that if the UK remains in the bloc, anger will escalate among Brexit voters.

He said, “They are angry now and they will be even angrier” if “the can is kicked down the road” once more.

Source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1186478/eu-news-brexit-latest-European-superstate-brexit-party-mep-rupert-lowe

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Johnson faces new constitutional crisis as Brexit talks grind to a halt

Heather Stewart, Severin Carrell, Daniel Boffey and Lisa O'Carroll — Sat, 05 Oct 2019 21:18:48 +0000

It appears increasingly unlikely PM will hit deadline for deal laid down in Benn act.

With a Brexit delay forced on him, Johnson could fight a general election on a platform of a hard Brexit. Photograph: Han Yan/Xinhua/Barcroft Media

Boris Johnson is careering towards a fresh constitutional crisis, after insisting there will be “no delay” to Brexit just hours after government lawyers promised in a court in Scotland that he w ould obey the law and request an extension if he failed to clinch a deal within a fortnight.

The prime minister tweeted that there must be “new deal or no deal – but no delay”, echoing the words he used in his party conference speech in Manchester on Wednesday.

The dramatic scenes in court came as Brexit negotiations all but ground to a halt after the EU rebuffed UK requests for them to intensify over the weekend. It now appears increasingly likely Johnson will fail to hit the deadline for a deal laid down in what he calls the “surrender act”.

EU sources said there remained considerable doubt as to whether there was any basis for such discussions, given Johnson’s insistence on there being a customs border on the island of Ireland.

Meanwhile, Julian Smith, the Northern Ireland secretary, was told by a series of senior figures in Belfast that the “Stormont lock” envisaged in the proposal is unworkable, setting up a race against time to rework that aspect of the plan in time for the 17 October European council meeting.

The European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 2) Act, drawn up by rebel MPs and passed by parliament, states that if Westminster does not agree to a Brexit deal by 19 October, the prime minister has to write to the EU seeking an extension to article 50 until 31 January.

In extracts of legal papers submitted by the government to the court of session in Edinburgh, that emerged on Friday in a case brought by anti-Brexit campaigners, the government appeared to accept for the first time that it would have to make the request.

The papers, which the government declined to publish in full, stated that the prime minister accepts “he is subject to the public law principle that he cannot frustrate its purpose or the purpose of its provisions. Thus he cannot act so as to prevent the letter requesting the specified extension in the act from being sent.”

Campaigners brought the legal action to force Johnson to comply with the requirements of the act, also known as the Benn Act, after a series of suggestions from Downing Street sources that Johnson believes he has found a loophole in the law that will allow him to leave the EU on 31 October regardless.

The UK government refused to release copies of its submissions in this case to the media despite repeated requests by the Guardian, the BBC, and other news organizations.

Key excerpts of its pledge were read out instead by Aidan O’Neill QC, the lawyer for the green energy millionaire Dale Vince, the SNP MP Joanna Cherry QC, and the lawyer and anti-Brexit campaigner Jolyon Maugham QC.

O’Neill told Lord Pentland, the judge hearing the case, that Johnson had repeatedly contradicted that position, including in the Commons on Wednesday, by insisting the UK would leave on 31 October “come what may”.

As a result, O’Neill said, the court still needed to issue legally binding orders to force Johnson to comply with the Benn Act in an interdict or injunction. If the prime minister refused to do so, O’Neill could return to court to ask for Johnson to be fined or jailed, he added. Pentland is due to give his ruling on Monday.

No 10 declined to comment. Yet senior government figures, including some cabinet ministers, continue to insist privately that while they will obey the law as narrowly interpreted, they can still avoid any delay to Brexit.

An attempt to circumvent the law would almost certainly result in another bitter court battle for the government – but Johnson’s allies hope he could thereby present himself as the man trying to “get Brexit done” in the face of obstructionist remainers.

With a Brexit delay forced on him, Johnson could then fight a general election on a platform of a hard Brexit.

Senior government insiders suggest that to confront the challenge from the Brexit party, the Conservatives would have to promise to strike an even tougher bargain than the one the prime minister is currently offering to Brussels.

The backbench rebels who drew up the Benn bill hoped to avert a no-deal Brexit, but Johnson has angrily accused them of undermining the government’s negotiating position.

In Brussels on Friday, a European Commission spokeswoman said: “We have completed discussions with the UK for today. We gave our initial reaction to the UK’s proposals and asked many questions on the legal text.

“We will meet again on Monday to give the UK another opportunity to present its proposals in detail.” The spokeswoman added that the proposals did not “provide a basis for concluding an agreement”.

A senior EU diplomat said: “If we held talks at the weekend, it would look like these were proper negotiations. The truth is we’re still a long way from that. We need to work out quickly whether there is the opportunity to close that gap.”

But the Irish deputy prime minister, Simon Coveney, speaking after a meeting in Belfast with the Northern Ireland secretary, struck a more upbeat note, saying a deal was “not mission impossible”.

“I believe it is possible to change that [approach including the old backstop] but we have to make sure that while we change the approach the outcome has got to be the same,” he said, adding that he believed “it’s possible to do that with goodwill and energy on all sides” next week.

But Smith was told by several parties at the meeting that the proposal, backed by the DUP, to give the devolved government the final say on Brexit arrangements in the region after Brexit was a non-starter.

One source with knowledge of the meeting said: “The message has gone back from all quarters in Northern Ireland from Sinn Féin to the Traditional Unionist Voice that this is unworkable and it will destabilize the institutions and the Good Friday agreement and is not plausible – and in light of that, if he is serious about getting a deal, he has to come back with something more realistic.”

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EU’s Juncker: Irish Border Controls Needed in No-Deal Brexit

Pan Pylas - Associated Press — Sun, 22 Sep 2019 10:01:41 +0000

Jean-Claude Juncker, chief of the European Union’s executive arm, says border controls will be placed on the Irish border if Britain leaves the bloc without a deal.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker listens Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019 in Strasbourg, eastern France, as members of the European Parliament discuss the current state of play of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LONDON (AP) — The European Union will insist that border controls be put up along the Irish border if Britain leaves the bloc without a deal and the British government will be responsible for that, a top EU official said.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, told Sky News in an interview broadcast Sunday that the blame for that would rest squarely on Britain. Border controls could, in theory, go up soon after Oct. 31, Britain’s scheduled departure date.

Brussels was “in no way responsible” for the consequences of a no-deal Brexit, Juncker told Sky News.

“We have to make sure that the interests of the European Union and of the internal market will be preserved,” he said.

How to maintain a frictionless border between EU member Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, is the thorniest issue in the Brexit discussions. An invisible border is a key component of 1998’s Good Friday peace accord that brought peace in Northern Ireland after decades of sectarian violence.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is insisting that the Irish border provision in the Brexit deal negotiated by his predecessor, Theresa May, be scrapped. The so-called Irish backstop is effectively a guarantee that no border will go up on the island of Ireland by requiring that Britain stick to EU trade rules — even though it won’t have any say in the formulation of those rules after Brexit — until the two sides have negotiated a comprehensive trade deal. That would leave Britain locked into the EU’s orbit for years.

British lawmakers rejected May’s deal three times this year, with many doing so because of their opposition to the backstop.

Johnson is trying to get the EU to agree to replace the backstop with “alternative arrangements” — a mix of technology to replace border checks and a common area for agricultural products and animals covering the whole island of Ireland.

Juncker said he is open to alternative arrangements, but noted that in a no-deal Brexit, an animal entering Northern Ireland could then enter the EU via Ireland if there are no border controls.

“This will not happen,” he said. “We have to preserve the health and the safety of our citizens.”

Under the rules of the EU’s single market, goods and people can move across the 28 countries seamlessly.

Johnson got elected by Conservative Party members in July on the promise that the country will leave the EU on Oct. 31 come what may.

British lawmakers, however, have passed a law that says the prime minister has to request an extension to the Brexit date if Parliament does not back a deal or a no-deal departure by Oct. 19. That law has raised questions on exactly when the country will leave.

Parliament is now suspended until Oct. 14, just over two weeks before the U.K. is due to leave the EU. However, it may be forced to return if the Supreme Court decides this week that Johnson’s request broke the law when he suspended Parliament.

The Supreme Court is deciding whether Johnson unlawfully shut Parliament to prevent lawmakers from scrutinizing his plan to leave the EU with or without a divorce deal. Opponents also accuse him of misleading Queen Elizabeth II, whose formal approval was needed to suspend the legislature.

The government says that Johnson acted lawfully and the issue of suspending parliament is one for politicians, not the courts.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the government will respect the Supreme Court’s ruling on Johnson’s move to suspend Parliament.

“Of course, we will respect whatever the legal ruling is from the Supreme Court,” he told the BBC on Sunday.

Pressed on whether Northern Ireland could have different EU customs arrangements than the rest of the UK, Raab said: “No, of course, that would be wrong.”

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Follow AP’s full coverage of Brexit and British politics at https://www.apnews.com/Brexit

Source: https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2019-09-22/eus-juncker-irish-border-controls-needed-in-no-deal-brexit

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