Strasbourg (AFP)

Six weeks before the Brexit date, European officials warned on Wednesday of the "very real risk" of a brutal divorce from the UK and the EU after Monday's unsuccessful Johnson-Juncker meeting, calling for no "do not pretend to negotiate".

"The risk of a + no deal + remains very real, it may be the choice of the government of the United Kingdom, but it will never be the choice of the European Union," warned the President of the Commission Jean-Claude Juncker in the Parliament Chamber in Strasbourg.

In these six minutes of speeches, he was regularly interrupted by the boos of British MEPs pro-Brexit, which Jean-Claude Juncker ironically hailed as his "fans".

The President of the European Commission considered that an agreement was "always desirable and always possible".

"I'm not sure that we will succeed, we have very little time left, but I'm sure we have to try," said the Luxembourger who must pass the torch of the European executive on 1 November to the German Ursula von der Leyen.

More than three years after the referendum that saw the British vote 52% for an exit from the European Union, a luncheon Monday between British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Jean-Claude Juncker, the chief negotiator of the EU, Michel Barnier and Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel did not advance the Brexit puzzle by one iota.

Boris Johnson is openly contemplating a divorce without agreement, despite some alarming predictions, of his own government, food shortages, drugs and public disturbances.

"It is certainly not about pretending to negotiate," EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier warned on Wednesday, also speaking to the European Parliament. A veiled criticism that could target Boris Johnson, accused in his country of lacking seriousness in the negotiations.

In "this extraordinary and complex negotiation", "it is our responsibility to continue this process with determination, with sincerity", said Mr. Barnier, insisting on the "need for legally operational solutions" concerning the situation of Ireland, the only country with which the United Kingdom has a land border.

- Green football shirt -

The Irish question remains at the heart of the discussions.

London demands the removal of the "backstop" or safety net, the safeguard clause provided to prevent the return of a physical boundary between Northern Ireland, British Province, and the Republic of Ireland.

In this case, the EU is demanding in London alternative solutions to the "backstop", designed to keep the United Kingdom in a "single customs territory" if there is no alternative.

"This is not enough to explain why we should remove the" backstop ", warned Michel Barnier, explaining that there was behind this mechanism" very concrete guarantees that all Irish citizens need ", and" for the health and consumer safety of the 27 ".

In the debate that followed, the pro-Brexit leader MEP Nigel Farage accused Michel Barnier of having wanted "from the beginning to trap them (the British, ed) inside the single market.

Just ahead of him, a North Irish MEP from Sinn Fein, a Republican party fighting for a reunited Ireland, Martina Anderson, stepped into the hemicylyle brandishing her Irish passport, wearing the green jersey of James McClean, a footballer born in Ireland from the North but who has chosen to represent the Republic of Ireland in international matches.

"We Irish people in Northern Ireland have the right to European citizenship," she said.

The United Kingdom hopes to make sufficient progress in the discussions to make the October 17 European Summit a crucial step towards finalizing a new agreement.

Any new agreement with London can not come into force without the consent of the European Parliament.

The text, agreed by the main political groups except the far right, remains faithful to the positions of the previous Parliament: do everything to avoid a "no deal", reaffirm that the agreement already negotiated is "fair" and balanced, "stress that a new postponement will only be supported if" valid reasons and purpose exist ".

© 2019 AFP