EU presses UK to resubmit Brexit plan as end-game looms

Time is running short for Britain and the EU to close big gaps over UK proposals for a managed Brexit. (Photo: AFP/Michele Tantussi)

Finnish counterpart Antti Rinne - whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union - said he told Johnson "it is important to find a solution within a week".

"Johnson said he agreed with the timetable," Rinne added.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte tweeted that he had spoken with Johnson by phone and told him "important questions remain about the British proposals" and "there is a lot of work to be done ahead" of a crucial EU summit on Oct 17-18.

The British leader was expected to call the leaders of other EU countries in the wake of his proposals being given short shrift by Brussels after they were submitted Wednesday.

As they stand, "the UK proposals do not provide a basis for concluding an agreement," a European Commission spokeswoman underlined Friday.

Talks Friday between a top UK Brexit official, David Frost, and the EU team headed by top negotiator Michel Barnier broke up without progress.

They were to resume Monday, despite the UK having been keen for them to continue through the weekend.

Johnson has called his plan "a fair and reasonable compromise" but also a broad "landing zone", which to the EU suggests he might yet budge on issues it finds unacceptable.

Time is running short for the two sides to close the gap.

Johnson is determined to take Britain out of the European Union at the end of this month come what may.

The EU summit in less than two weeks is to determine whether the country is headed for a Brexit deal, no-deal, or an extension.

A WEEK'S WINDOW

European diplomats say London needs to offer revised, viable proposals before the end of next week so any haggling and legalistic work is done before the summit.

The EU refuses to characterise the talks held so far as negotiations, preferring to resurrect a Brexit withdrawal agreement struck with Johnson's predecessor Theresa May that has been rejected three times by British MPs.

The main sticking point is a "backstop" for Northern Ireland that under the May agreement would have seen all the UK, or at least Northern Ireland, remaining in the EU's customs union.

That is meant to guarantee no border springs up between the British territory and EU member Ireland - which would threaten the hard-won Good Friday peace accord - while also maintaining the integrity of the EU's single market.

Britain's current idea for an alternative is for untried technology to remove the need for most but not all border checks, and for EU standards on goods to continue to apply in Northern Ireland to facilitate trade.

This border plan is not acceptable for the EU. It sees the potential for rampant smuggling, especially as Johnson intends for the rest of the UK to diverge from EU labour, environmental and tax norms to aim for a regulation-lite economy on Europe's doorstep.

"I made clear that the proposed solutions do not ensure the respect of the Good Friday Agreement, EU unity or the integrity of the single market," Ritte said.

EARLY UK ELECTIONS POSSIBLE

Nor does the EU agree with a proposal giving Northern Ireland's assembly an effective veto over the post-Brexit customs arrangement.

If Johnson does not alter those points, it is hard to see the EU moving talks into the negotiation phase.

Yet if he bends on them, Johnson risks losing tenuous support in the UK parliament to maybe pass a Brexit deal, reliant on 10 Democratic Unionist MPs from Northern Ireland and hard-core Brexit MPs in his Conservative Party.

If thwarted, Johnson's best bet may lie with early elections - but those could only happen after the date he has said Brexit would happen.

There he also faces a challenge, with the UK parliament having passed a law requiring him to seek a Brexit extension from the EU by Oct 19 if he has not reached a deal by then.

British media speculation that Johnson might get Hungary to break EU ranks and prevent the required unanimity for an extension was denied by Budapest.

Hungary "was not approached to aid in vetoing a possible extension of Brexit," its foreign ministry said in a statement to AFP.