UK Brexit team faces sceptical EU

British and European customs and border experts meet today for technical talks, as Boris Johnson’s government struggles to convince anyone it is serious about negotiating a revised Brexit withdrawal deal.

Johnson lost his first parliamentary battle as British prime minister on Tuesday when rebel and opposition MPs opposed to a “no-deal” departure from the European Union stripped him of his governing majority.

But London’s Brexit “sherpa”, senior diplomat David Frost, was due in Brussels for closed door talks with an EU task force to explore possible alternatives to the “Irish backstop” clause in a withdrawal treaty.

EU leaders see the backstop as the only way to protect their single market and the Northern Ireland peace agreement -- and they accuse Johnson of failing to come up with any credible alternative suggestion.

FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEM

At home, Johnson’s opponents accused him of carrying out a sham negotiation while hurtling towards an economically disastrous no-deal Brexit on October 31, and British MPs are trying to pass a law to force him to ask for a delay.

But British officials point to Frost’s visit yesterday as evidence they are engaging in good faith with Brussels and in turn seeking ideas from the European side to break the impasse.

A British official source told AFP the talks would go on all month and “intensify”, arguing the prime minister “wants to get a deal and is ready to work in an energetic and determined way to get it done”.

The team intends for the talks to “run through a range of issues, including the removal of the backstop,” he said.

“Discussions so far have shown that the two sides remain some distance apart on key issues but are willing to work hard to find a way through,” he said.

“The fundamental problem is that the British government and parliament disagree on what they want,” the European official told AFP.

A BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY

Any of the “alternative arrangements” promoted by Johnson for the Irish border must thus protect the integrity of the single market, prevent a hard border and respect the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement.

Frost’s delegation represents what the British official called “an expert team from across government that has expertise in regulations and customs”.

But London won’t make any proposal public only to see it shot down by sceptical Europeans, and EU experts say that without a physical border -- something all sides insist they want to avoid -- the backstop is the only plausible failsafe.

“If I were a fraudster, it’s a business opportunity, for sure,” an EU anti-corruption official told journalists of the prospect of a free-for-all on the Northern Irish border after a “no deal” departure.