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The European Parliament is trying to get in the way of a discounted Brexit road with a text in preparation that wants to carve the safety net for Ireland. At the same time, the Europeans show a pessimism foolproof face the vagaries of British policy and the setbacks suffered by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. A wild Brexit, a Brexit without overnight agreement on October 31st, seems more and more plausible.
With our correspondent in Brussels, Pierre Benazet
" There will be no agreement without a safety net for Ireland and this position of the European Parliament will have the final word ," according to its president David Sassoli.
The majority groups in the hemicycle have jointly prepared a text that they will propose to all MEPs to adopt next week at the plenary session in Strasbourg.
The compromise proposals presented in Brussels by David Frost, Boris Johnson's negotiator, are all behind the ambitions of the exit agreement negotiated with Theresa May's government. For example, reducing the safety net for Ireland to an agreement on sanitary controls for agricultural products. A state of affairs that the European Parliament refuses to accept.
Parliament even proposes to return to the original solution: divide the United Kingdom into two by cutting off Northern Ireland from Great Britain.
Michel Barnier pessimistic about an agreement with London
For fear of seeing the 27 capitals tempted by a minimalist deal with London, MEPs warn that it's all-or-nothing and that they will not give their indispensable blank check to a discounted Brexit.
This risks sounding the death knell for Boris Johnson's ambitions to force the European Union to make concessions. As for the European negotiator, Michel Barnier, he asserts that there is no reason to hope for an agreement.
► See also: United Kingdom: "Yellowhammer", where the pangs of a Brexit "no deal"