Poland breaks ranks with EU to propose five-year time limit on Brexit backstop
The EU’s chief negotiator today insisted the Brexit deal negotiated with Theresa May is set in stone, as Poland broke ranks to suggest a key change to the agreement.
Michel Barnier told Irish broadcaster RTE that “the withdrawal agreement with all its dimensions, including the backstop, is the best deal possible” this afternoon.
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The so-called backstop is an arrangement to prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and the republic of Ireland by tying the UK into a temporary customs union with the bloc.
However, the UK cannot exit this arrangement of its own accord, something that has proven unpopular with all parties and led to the deal being defeated by parliament earlier this month.
But Poland’s foreign minister today said he would be in favour of limiting the backstop to just five years in order to help the Prime Minister get a version of her deal through parliament.
Jacek Czaputowicz told the BBC that doing so would be a means of "unblocking" the negotiations, which have stalled as May prepares to present her “plan B” to parliament later this afternoon.
Barnier, however, has poured cold water on any suggestions the EU would return to the deal that took negotiators two years to reach.
“Following carefully the political debate in London, this debate is much more now on the future relationship,” he said, as quoted by Reuters.
“As I said last week at the EU parliament, if the UK want to be more ambitious, we are ready to be.
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“It is now for the UK leaders to build a stable and positive majority for a deal. We are waiting for the next steps from the UK government but we are ready to work again on the political declaration.”