EU not considering legally binding assurances on Brexit backstop, says official
Martin Selmayr’s comments heap further pressure on Theresa May as she seeks to renegotiate her Withdrawal Agreement.
Nobody in the EU is considering offering legally binding assurances to help Theresa May get her Brexit deal through Parliament, a senior Brussels official has said.
Speaking after talks with MPs on the House of Commons Brexit Committee, European Commission secretary general Martin Selmayr said the 90-minute meeting had confirmed the EU was right to begin preparations for a no-deal outcome.
The comments from commission president Jean-Claude Juncker’s right-hand man heap further pressure on the Prime Minister as she prepares to go to Brussels to seek a renegotiation of the UK’s Withdrawal Agreement.
Mrs May will visit Northern Ireland on Tuesday for a speech in which she is expected to confirm her Government’s “absolute commitment” to avoiding a hard border with the Republic after Brexit.
Rebel MPs from both sides of the Conservative Party’s Leave/Remain divide were meeting in Whitehall to develop ideas for “alternative arrangements” to replace the controversial backstop to keep the Irish border open.
Downing Street has indicated potential solutions could revolve around a time limit or unilateral break clause on the backstop or new technologies to make it unnecessary.
But Mrs May’s official spokesman declined to say whether Home Secretary Sajid Javid was right to suggest that the UK Border Force had identified “existing technologies” to do the job.
There was little sign of appetite from the EU side to rewrite the agreement reached by Mrs May and Mr Juncker in November but rejected by a 230-vote margin in the Commons last month.
Deputy Brexit negotiator Sabine Weyand said that technology would not be able to solve the border issue “in the next few years”.
And in response to reports that he had told the Brexit Committee that the EU would be ready to consider legally binding assurances, Mr Selmayr tweeted: “On the EU side, nobody is considering this.
“Asked whether any assurance would help to get the Withdrawal Agreement through the Commons, the answers of MPs were … inconclusive.
“The meeting confirmed that the EU did well to start its no deal preparations in December 2017.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the EU was ready to listen to proposals to solve the border “riddle”, but needs to hear from Britain how it thinks it can be done.
Speaking during a trip to Japan, Mrs Merkel said: “To solve this riddle, you have to be creative and you have to listen to one another.
“We can have those conversations, so we can use the remaining time to perhaps remove the obstacles that have so far stood in the way and find an agreement if everyone is willing.
“But we must hear from Great Britain how they want to do it.”
Mrs Merkel’s visit for talks with Japanese PM Shinzo Abe came soon after a new EU-Japan trade deal came into force and a day after Nissan confirmed it was ditching plans to build its X-Trail SUV in Sunderland.
The company said the decision was largely driven by changing demand for diesel models but added that “uncertainty around the UK’s future relationship with the EU is not helping companies like ours to plan for the future”.
The chairman of the Brexit Committee, Hilary Benn, voiced scepticism about the prospects for a technological solution to the border issue, telling reporters: “Personally, I don’t see how it can work – particularly in the very short amount of time that there is left.”
Speaking after the committee’s meeting with Mr Selmayr, Mr Benn said the UK Government and EU had already put a great deal of effort into exploring a technological solution, only to conclude that: “It’s not going to work.”
Meanwhile, Downing Street poured cold water on speculation over an early election, saying that Mrs May was “absolutely not” considering a vote on June 6.
The comments came as Justice Secretary David Gauke became the latest Cabinet minister to suggest that Brexit might have to be delayed beyond the scheduled date of March 29, telling the BBC that the “key” was achieving a “smooth and orderly departure”.
Hardline Eurosceptics in the European Research Group (ERG) and Remain-supporting former ministers were gathering in the Cabinet Office for the first meeting of the new Alternative Arrangements Working Group (AAWG).
ERG deputy chairman Steve Baker, former Northern Ireland secretary Owen Paterson and Yeovil MP Marcus Fysh will sit around a table with former education secretary Nicky Morgan and ex-Cabinet Office minister Damian Green to examine the feasibility of the so-called Malthouse Compromise.
Downing Street confirmed that they will gather under the chairmanship of Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay on each of the first three days of this week and did not rule out further meetings beyond that date.
The group is due to draw up alternative proposals “as soon as possible” under the framework of the Malthouse Compromise, which could see the transition period after the official date of Brexit extended by a further year to the end of 2021.
Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer moved to clarify Labour’s position on the backstop, after Jeremy Corbyn suggested last week he would have “a problem” with a “one-sided” arrangement.
Speaking in Northern Ireland, Sir Keir told the Press Association: “We recognise there is a need for a backstop at this stage of the exercise.
“The Prime Minister has effectively run down the clock and therefore it is impossible to see a way forward without a backstop.
“So, whilst we have got concerns that we have set out about the backstop, we do accept the principle that there has got to be a backstop.”
