• European Union.Macron warns Boris Johnson that there is no time for "a new agreement"
  • European Union.Donald Tusk says that Brexit without agreement is "more likely than ever"

The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk will meet with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the margins of the G7 meeting in Biarritz (France) and the European Union hopes that Downing Street will provide more details on the alternative plan to the Irish safeguard that London rejected last Monday.

The Brexit will be the elephant in the room during the G7. After meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday Wednesday and with French President Emmanuel Macron today, Boris Johnson will see their faces for the first time with Donald Tusk, since the first was elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom last July. The meeting takes place just a few days after Johnson announced to Tusk by letter his rejection of the United Kingdom's exit agreement from the Union while content the so-called backstop , the Irish safeguard.

"We have been very clear and consistent with our position, both the EU institutions and the member states," said a community source on the issue. Brussels has been blunt since it's the beginning. The Irish safeguard is a security instrument to protect the peace process in Northern Ireland . The EU is willing to negotiate alternatives, substitutes, but as long as they respect the exit agreement and are operational from day one. Johnson, for now, only proposes commitments and Brussels wants solutions.

"Those who oppose backstop but do not propose realistic alternatives de facto support the restoration of a border," Tusk rushed to Johnson's letter. And it does not seem that in his passage through Paris or Berlin the British prime minister has given details on how or with what to replace the Irish safeguard.

The EU hopes to learn more details about potential alternatives to backstop "not at the end of September," Johnson talked about 30 days to design a plan, "but before." The same sources remember that in any case, it will be the European Commission who evaluates the systems to replace the backstop and if these are functional. At the moment, there is no offer on the table.

And tension grows in Brussels. Johnson has insisted since he was elected prime minister that the United Kingdom will leave the EU on October 31. Whatever happens. With or without agreement. Brussels applauds the British government's commitment to find a solution to the impasse in the negotiation but it does not seem easy.

The British premier considers a non-agreement as an acceptable possibility and this makes it even more likely . "Member states need to take the possibility of a non-agreement more seriously than ever," said high community sources, who insist that it is a matter of responsibility. An abrupt Brexit will have devastating consequences for both parties , even if it is controlled.

Boris Johnson traveled to Berlin yesterday to meet Angela Merkel and is today in Paris where French President Emmanuel Macron has also received him. Johnson prepares the ground for the G7 where leaders will have a new opportunity to discuss Brexit. However, no one wants the issue to affect an already charged agenda, particularly Macron that acts as a host, with commercial tensions or the climate change struggle as hot spots in the discussion.

The EU is also preparing for the crash. The president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, met today with the EU negotiating chief for Brexit, Michel Barnier, to prepare his meeting with Johnson . Brussels remains open to dialogue and to explore potential alternatives that allow an orderly Brexit. Of course, as long as they are negotiated within the framework of the political declaration on the future relationship. Of the exit agreement, they warn, not a comma moves.

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  • Donald Tusk
  • Boris johnson
  • Angela Merkel
  • Emmanuel Macron
  • European Union
  • Brexit

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