London (AFP)

The Brexit negotiations between London and the Europeans seem on the brink of rupture, just over three weeks away from the expected date, with Brussels accusing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson of playing with "the future of Europe".

The Europeans gave the British government until the end of the week to present them with an acceptable compromise and reach an amicable separation on 31 October.

Without waiting for this deadline, the two parties do not hide their pessimism, seeming to prepare the spirits for an exit without agreement, even the delay desired by the British Parliament. After a phone conversation Tuesday between Johnson and Angela Merkel, a source at Downing Street has ruled an agreement "virtually impossible".

According to this source, the German Chancellor warned the head of the Conservative government that an agreement was "extremely improbable" for lack of new proposals from London providing for the retention of British Northern Ireland in the European Customs Union. What the UK refuses.

The challenge is to avoid restoring a physical border between the two Ireland and to preserve peace on the island, which has experienced several decades of violence.

"Efforts continue to reach agreement," EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier tweeted after meeting with Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney. The latter said he believed in Boris Johnson's desire to find a way out.

- "Stupid game" -

The President of the European Council, the Polish Donald Tusk, accused Boris Johnson on Twitter of playing with "the future of Europe and the United Kingdom" by lending himself to a "stupid game of finding a culprit" in case failure of negotiations.

Refusing him also this "blame game", the president of the Commission Jean-Claude Juncker estimated in an interview with the French dailies the Echos and the Opinion that "the original sin is on the islands and not on the continent". "A Brexit without an agreement would lead to a collapse of the United Kingdom and a clear weakening of the growth springs on the continent," he added, adding that "losing a member state for reasons of strict domestic policy (.. .) remains a real tragedy ".

Tough negotiations continued Tuesday in Brussels on the basis of a project presented last Wednesday by Boris Johnson to try to end the puzzle of the Irish border.

The British plan has been rejected by the Europeans as it stands.

After a 40-minute telephone interview on Tuesday, Boris Johnson and his Irish counterpart Leo Varadkar "hope to meet this week," according to Downing Street, although Varadkar agreed it would be "very difficult to reach a agreement by the end of next week ", on the RTE channel.

Received by Boris Johnson at the end of the day, the President of the European Parliament, the Italian David Sassoli, lamented that there was "no progress".

"These talks are reaching a critical point: the UK has taken a big step forward and now we have to see something move on the EU side," said a British spokesman.

- "Nothing has moved" -

London had tried Monday to provide clarification. But according to a European source, "nothing has moved". "At this rate, it is difficult to see how one could be ready for the European Council of 17 and 18 October, presented as that of the last chance," said another source.

Boris Johnson, who came to power at the end of July, pledged to remove the UK from the EU at any cost on October 31, despite a law requiring him to call a postponement if no agreement is reached by 19 October.

Signs that the hypothesis of a "no deal" is strengthening, the Irish Minister of Finance Paschal Donohoe announced Tuesday a massive support plan to the economy of his country, amounting to 1.2 billion euros, to mitigate the impact.

The British government has also assured to be "prepared" for a Brexit without agreement. But the think tank Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has painted a blackboard, with a dip in economic activity and an explosion in the UK's public deficit.

According to a Downing Street source quoted by The Spectator magazine, Johnson is banking on a failure of negotiations with the EU and will do "all sorts of things" to avoid a postponement. If finally the exit was postponed a third time the time to organize elections, Boris Johnson would campaign for a "no deal" in case of early elections.

Quoted by the Daily Mirror, Keir Starmer, head of Brexit in the Labor Party, the main opposition party, says that since the beginning, Boris Johnson's plan has been an exit from the United Kingdom without agreement. And the rest of Wednesday's British press was very pessimistic about the chances of avoiding this scenario.

© 2019 AFP