Brexit: London and Brussels send the ball to find an agreement

New Brexit round of negotiations between the UK and the EU. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who promised to carry out Brexit "whatever happens" on October 31, presented a compromise on Wednesday October 2 to the EU as a final offer.

"If our European neighbors choose not to show the same good will to reach an agreement, then we will have to leave (the EU) on October 31 without agreement," he threatened, a scenario with potentially disastrous economic consequences .

But difficult negotiations are coming up in an extremely tight schedule of a few weeks.

While Boris Johnson seems to blame Europeans for the failure of negotiations, a spokesman for the European Commission said he was returning to London to resolve the "problematic issues" raised by the EU in the past. British project.

"There is still work to be done, but this work must be done by the UK, not the other way around," Natasha Bertaud told reporters in Brussels.

Opposition not convinced by Johnson's proposals

In addition to convincing Europeans in the short time remaining, the head of government must also get the support of members of the House of Commons, where he no longer has a majority. He worked on Thursday, October 3, during a lively session, reflecting the climate of political crisis in the country more than three years after the victory of the "leave" in the referendum.

In front of him, the leader of Labor, Jeremy Corbyn, considered that the plan of Boris Johnson was not "feasible" and did not constitute a "serious" offer.

The Scottish independence leader in the House of Commons, Ian Blackford, also ruled that the Prime Minister's proposals were neither "acceptable" nor "feasible" and called for a postponement of the Brexit, or to resign.

Negotiator meetings planned in the coming days

Boris Johnson's plan calls for Northern Ireland to leave the European customs union, like the rest of the United Kingdom, but for the British province to continue to enforce EU rules on the movement of goods, including food and drink , with the creation of a "Regulatory Area" on the Island of Ireland, subject to the agreement of Parliament and the Northern Ireland Executive.

This would eliminate all regulatory controls between Northern Ireland and Ireland, but this would imply divergent regulations between the British province and the rest of the Kingdom. These proposals have been greeted by very negative reactions from Northern Ireland companies, as the Federation of Distributors deems them "impractical".

Meetings between European and British negotiators are planned in Brussels in the coming days. The Europeans want to know if Boris Johnson is "ready to move and act" on the issues that are problematic, said another diplomat.

Having come to power at the end of July, Boris Johnson committed to getting his country out of the EU at any cost on October 31, a deadline that was postponed twice.

"We need to move forward at a good pace, intensely," Brexit Minister Steve Barclay told BBC Thursday morning, stressing the need for both parties to engage in discussions from here. the weekend to reach an agreement.

The minister was optimistic: "The answer of the (European) Commission is that they think it is a serious proposal and I believe that both parties want to reach an agreement".

With AFP