British negotiator will discuss Brexit conditions in Brussels
The negotiations continue with the European Parliament in order to achieve the best conditions concerning the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland
The new British negotiator for Brexit, David Frost, travels to Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday to hold discussions with senior European Commission officials, including the director of the EU negotiating team, Stephanie Riso.
Frost will take advantage of his first contact with key positions of the Community Executive to transfer in person the message of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and settle “the United Kingdom will leave the EU on October 31st, regardless of the circumstances,” according to a spokesman for the British government.
The British government will work “with energy so that there is an agreement but the safeguard (for the Irish border) must be removed” from the negotiated Withdrawal Agreement. “If we are not able to reach an agreement then, of course, we will have to leave the EU without an agreement,” said the source.
From the Community Executive they have confirmed that Frost will meet in the coming days with the chief of staff of the president of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, Clara Martínez Alberola, the acting secretary general of the European Commission, Ilze Junhansone, and the director of the EU Brexit negotiating team, Stephanie Riso.
Juncker congratulated Johnson on Thursday for his appointment and transferred that the Withdrawal Agreement agreed with his predecessor, Theresa May, “is the best and only possible” but they are still willing to modify the Political Declaration agreed equally between the parties to lay the foundations of future cooperation after leaving the country and to “analyze any idea raised by the United Kingdom, provided they are compatible with the Withdrawal Agreement”.
The new premier, which has already made it clear that the United Kingdom will leave the EU on October 31st, with or without agreement, made it clear to Juncker that to reach an agreement it is necessary to abolish the backstop, the safeguard to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, after remembering that the Withdrawal Treaty” has been rejected three times by Parliament and will not be approved in its current wording,“ said a spokesman for Downing Street.
The bloc has remained firm in its solidarity with Ireland during the negotiation of the exit agreement and has made it clear that avoiding the return of a rigid border with Ulster on the island is an undeniable priority.
Source: dpa
