Hopes revived after successful talks
Donald Tusk has said that a Brexit deal could possibly be agreed at next week’s European Union summit following yesterday’s upbeat meeting between Boris Johnson and Leo Varadkar.
The president of the European Council dampened optimism, however, by insisting that there was no guarantee of success and suggesting that the chances of agreement remained slim. He also revealed that he had set Mr Johnson a deadline of today to come up with a “realistic workable proposal” or he would rule out a deal at the meeting of EU leaders in six days’ time.
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, told EU ambassadors this morning that it was worth “entering the tunnel” — jargon for highly confidential negotiations with the UK — following a two-hour meeting in Brussels with the Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay.
The pound was up 2 per cent against the US dollar last night at $1.245, its biggest one-day gain in seven months. By lunchtime today it had risen by a further two cents to $1.2645.
Mr Tusk said: “I have received promising signals from the taoiseach that a deal is still possible. Technical talks are taking place in Brussels as we speak. Of course there’s no guarantee of success and the time is practically up but even the slightest chance must be used.
“A week ago I told PM Johnson that if there was no such proposal by today I would announce publicly there are no more chances, because of objective reasons, for a deal during the coming EU Council.”
Mr Barnier is due to brief ambassadors from the 27 EU members this afternoon. EU sources say that they expect talks to take place over the weekend in an attempt to reach a deal before the summit, which starts on Thursday.
Mr Johnson has so far not shared the outlines of the new proposals with his full cabinet, although The Times understands that he spoke to Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, before his meeting with Mr Varadkar.
The plan is understood to involve a “substantial” offer from Mr Johnson on customs checks and a consent mechanism to give the Northern Ireland assembly a say on how long a new backstop should last. Critically, he is understood to have dropped his insistence that the Tories’ DUP allies be given a veto on new arrangements coming into effect.
Sources said that it had also rebuilt trust between the two sides after a fractious few days during which Downing Street accused Mr Varadkar of putting obstacles in the way of a deal. It had said that he had reneged on private assurances not to openly attack Mr Johnson’s previous proposals. Mr Johnson’s aides accused the Irish administration of leaking the plan to the media before it was published.
Significantly, Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s chief adviser, who was blamed for the briefings, attended yesterday’s meeting at a country house hotel outside Liverpool. Sir Mark Sedwill, the cabinet secretary, also took part with his Irish counterpart.
“Both [leaders] continue to believe a deal is in everybody’s interest. They agreed that they could see a pathway to a possible deal,” the British and Irish governments said in a joint statement. “They agreed to reflect further on their discussions and that officials would continue to engage intensively on them.”
It is understood that Irish officials in Brussels briefed their counterparts on the EU’s “taskforce 50” negotiating team last night.
Mr Johnson made no public comment after the meeting but Mr Varadkar said that what had been agreed should be “sufficient to allow negotiations to resume in Brussels”.
“I had a very good meeting. It was very positive and very promising. I am now absolutely convinced that both Ireland and Britain want there to be an agreement that’s in the interests of Ireland and the UK and the EU as a whole,” he said.
He added: “I think it is possible for us to come to an agreement, to have a treaty to allow the UK to leave the EU in an orderly fashion, and to have that done by the end of October, but there’s many a slip between cup and lip.
“In terms of how long it will take, I can’t predict that with any certainty, but I think all sides would like there to be an agreement next week at the council if possible.”
Mr Varadkar said that any deal would include mechanisms for co-operation between Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic.
“We had a good discussion looking forward to how relationships might look after Brexit, how we can strengthen co-operation North and South economically and politically and also between Britain and Ireland,” he said.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/hope-of-path-to-a-brexit-deal-after-johnson-meets-irish-pm-varadkar-5xrl88xj7
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