BRUSSELS : British negotiators urged the EU to accept assurances Britain would effectively stay in a customs union with the EU to avoid a hard border with Ireland and make a hotly contested “backstop” for Northern Ireland unnecessary, EU diplomats said on Monday.
But diplomatic sources briefed on Sunday’s breakdown in Brexit talks, said the European Union insisted that an insurance policy to keep Northern Ireland alone inside the EU’s economic zone is still vital – something London says it cannot accept.
The EU position, the sources told Reuters, is that London’s assurances of maintaining EU-UK customs links to avoid a hard border are mere aspirations, and cannot be sealed into treaty law before Britain leaves the bloc in March, hence the backstop.
That so-called backstop agreement on Northern Ireland is the one major issue to thwart hopes of having a draft withdrawal agreement ready for EU leaders to approve on Wednesday.
And the issue underlines how far British Prime Minister Theresa May’s difficulties in securing agreement from her own ministers, as well as key allies in Northern Ireland, are holding up a deal.
