PARIS, Oct 12, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – European Commission head Jean-Claude
Juncker said Friday that “substantial progress” was needed in Brexit
negotiations, particularly on the vexed issue of the Irish border.
“I want to believe that we will be able to find a deal with our British
friends between the European Council meeting next week and the possible one
in November,” Juncker told French newspaper Le Monde.
“We therefore need substantial progress, which we should be able to see
next week,” Juncker added, referring to a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels
where Britain’s exit from the European Union is set to top the agenda.
Britain’s under-fire Prime Minister Theresa May has been invited to address
fellow EU leaders on the eve of talks on her Brexit plans.
If she cannot convince them that she is able to deliver a Brexit deal that
her European counterparts see as respecting the EU’s joint rules on trade and
investment, negotiations are expected to fall into crisis.
The biggest difficulty is the future trading and customs arrangement
between Ireland, an EU member, and northern Ireland, a British territory that
will leave the trading bloc in March next year along with the rest of the UK.
“The Irish question is obviously ultra difficult,” Juncker said. “It’s true
that we are not where we need to be to be able to conclude. (But) it’s not
the EU that has imposed this debate on the British and Irish: it’s the
sovereign British decision that caused this difficulty.
“In any case, if Ireland finds itself in a situation that it can’t accept
what is being proposed, then we won’t conclude. ‘Ireland First’,” he said.
Juncker said that the EU Commission and member states were preparing for a
potential “no deal” scenario that would see Britain crash out of the EU next
March without legal agreements governing its relations with the rest of the
bloc.
“Some (members) consider that we should do more (to prepare for a no
deal”,” Juncker said. “I have good reasons for not doing that: we are not
insisting too much because it would be seen as a provocation in London.”