Barnier highlights need to resolve Rock’s post-Brexit future

By Chronicle staff and agencies

The EU's chief Brexit negotiator highlighted Gibraltar’s future outside the bloc as one of the “important” pending issues that must be resolved by October before a withdrawal agreement can be concluded with the UK.

In his first public response to the white paper published by the UK last week, Michel Barnier also said the EU was open to exploring solutions to the central thorny issue of the Irish border and insisted any deal must be clear and legally watertight.

Speaking after briefing ministers from the 27 remaining EU states in Brussels, Mr Barnier said the white paper has opened the way for "constructive discussions" on the post-Brexit relationship between the EU and the UK.

But he said there were elements of the plan agreed by the Cabinet earlier this month at Chequers which the European Commission did not understand, and said further discussions would be needed over the coming weeks to establish how much "common ground" exists between London and Brussels.

Mr Barnier signalled the need for progress on a number of pending issues, including Gibraltar.

“We need to find agreement on all the outstanding issues in the withdrawal agreement,” he said.

“This of course includes the issue of Ireland and Northern Ireland, that’s the most serious issue.”

“But also the British military bases in Cyprus, and obviously Gibraltar.”

“Each of these issues is important and we need to have an agreement on each and every one of these issues.”

“Agreement on them is necessary prior to us adopting a withdrawal agreement.”

“They are necessary.”

“With the UK, we need to also draw up the joint political declaration on our future relationship, this by October.”

And he added: “At this stage in the negotiation we don’t have many weeks left, but actually it’s not a matter of needing more time, it’s a matter of choosing the right decisions and being absolutely clear.”

“We’re creating an international legal treaty, so we need legal certainty and legal clarity.”

“The earlier we can achieve this certainty and clarity, the earlier we can start discussions on our future partnership.”

CHALLENGE
Mr Barnier was speaking shortly after Mrs May issued a challenge to Brussels to "evolve" its negotiating position in response to the publication of her Brexit blueprint.

He said the EU had always been "creative and flexible" in its approach to negotiations.

But he insisted that future talks would be based on the guidelines issued by the European Council in March - which included the controversial proposal to keep Northern Ireland in the EU customs union - and not on Mrs May's document.

He indicated the EU was ready to amend its "backstop" proposals for the Irish border, which have become the biggest stumbling block in talks.

But he said Mrs May's proposal for a "facilitated customs arrangement" opened up the risk of major fraud, additional bureaucracy and damage to EU businesses, he said.

"There will be a deal if there is an agreement on the backstop," said Mr Barnier.

"It's not necessarily our backstop. We can work on this, amend it, improve our backstop - the one that the Commission proposed on behalf of the Union.

"Technically we feel that it's workable, we can improve it further, we can work on it. We are doing that work.

"But we need an operational backstop now, in the Withdrawal Agreement, and not later."

In her first major Brexit speech since the wave of ministerial resignations which followed her Chequers deal, the Prime Minister described the white paper proposals as "a significant development of our position ... a coherent package".

And she said: "It is now for the EU to respond - not simply to fall back on to previous positions which have already been proven unworkable, but to evolve their position in kind.”

"And, on that basis, I look forward to resuming constructive discussions."

Speaking in Belfast, Mrs May also took aim at critics from the hard Brexit wing of the Conservative Party, accusing them of being ready to "betray" the people of Northern Ireland and the Republic.

She took on the argument of prominent Eurosceptics including Jacob Rees-Mogg, who say the UK should simply declare it will impose no checks on its side of the Irish border and leave it to Brussels to decide whether to require the Republic to erect barriers on the other.

"The protection of the peace process and upholding our binding commitments in the Belfast Agreement are grave responsibilities," she said.

"Not to seek a solution would be to resume our career as an independent sovereign trading nation by betraying commitments to a part of our nation and to our nearest neighbour."

And she took a swipe at former foreign secretary Boris Johnson's claim - repeated in his resignation speech to the Commons on Wednesday - that technological solutions could be used to avoid the need for infrastructure at the border.

"No technology solution to address these issues has been designed yet or implemented anywhere in the world, let alone in such a unique and highly sensitive context as the Northern Ireland border," she said.

Mrs May restated her implacable opposition to the EU backstop, which she said would involve the creation of a customs border within the UK, which was "something I will never accept and I believe no British prime minister could ever accept".

Equally, she said that a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic was "almost inconceivable".

Twenty years after the Good Friday Agreement, the return of any form of physical checkpoints or other infrastructure would be "an alien concept".

Mrs May said that her White Paper proposals, which would see the UK remain within the single market for goods and adopt a "common rule book" of regulations with the EU, represented a "credible third option" that would "honour the Belfast Agreement, deliver on the referendum result and be good for our economy".

Mr Barnier said that the Withdrawal Agreement could not be concluded without a legally binding backstop setting out the fallback arrangements if a wider solution for the Irish border could not be found.

This would be based on the Commission's proposal but "not necessarily" stick precisely to the outline released in March, he said.