The Guardian - 07.09.2019

Section:GDN 1N PaGe:11 Edition Date:190907 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 6/9/2019 17:54 cYanmaGentaYellowbl

Saturday 7 September 2019 The Guardian •

11

Lisa O’Carroll

Brexit correspondent

T

he Irish border

backstop is widely

seen within the

Conservative party

as the single obstacle

to a deal. If that were

removed, May’s deal could be

swiftly dusted down and passed in

parliament, it has been claimed time

and time again.

But this week it emerged that

Boris Johnson wants to drive a coach

and horses through other areas of

the Brexit deal too, so even if the

backstop were removed, support

would not be guaranteed. Here is

what we have learned this week:

He wants to renege on the level

playing fi eld

The European commission told

diplomats that Johnson was

demanding that the EU rewrite the

part of the political declaration that

promise s a level playing fi eld in

crucial areas such as environment,

employment law and social policy.

Johnson’s negotiator, David Frost,

told them he wanted them to

commit themselves to a “best in

class free trade agreement” whereby

the UK would be able to diverge on

standards including employment

protections, something the Labour

party has feared all along.

Loosen the defence pledges

Britain is also demanding Brussels

rewrite the defence pledges in the

It’s not just the backstop

Other parts of Brexit deal

Johnson wants to abandon

her job as a teacher in a German
school. But she has friends who
are still waiting to hear about their
status. “There are many people who
are still in limbo and everything is
insecure. They don’t know if they
will be able to continue to stay and
work here.”
Like many long-term British
nationals outside the UK, she
was unable to vote in the 2016
referendum. Her letters to MPs went
unanswered and she feels British
citizens living elsewhere in the EU
are being ignored.
Above all, she is saddened for her
family and the next generation, who
will not have the same opportunities
to study, live, work or retire in the
EU. Freedom of movement, she
says, is “a beautiful dream full
of opportunity and that is being
destroyed by a government that
seems to have forgotten thousands
of citizens who live and work and
study in Europe”.

Joanna Newman , 54, has lived in
Barcelona for 29 years and has two
adult children, both born in Spain
but British citizens, because birth
in Spain does not confer citizenship
unless one parent is Spanish. She
also has a one-year-old grandson.

“I’m really worried about no deal,

most of all for my kids, because

they won’t have the choices to

work and study they had under free

movement. The scariest thing is

no one knows what’s happening or

what, if anything, we should do.

“I don’t want to apply for Spanish

citizenship because I feel British,

despite living here for 29 years. But I

will if I have to.”

When a deal was still on the table

the Spanish government was at

pains to put British residents’ minds

at rest, issuing a statement that

read: “ The negotiated withdrawal

agreement preserves the rights of

British citizens who have exercised

or exercise their right to free

movement in Spain.” It said new

identity cards would be issued for

registered residents.

In the event of no deal, it adds

that it “is working on seeking to

safeguard the interests of British

citizens who, prior to the date

on which the withdrawal of the

UK from the European Union

takes place, exercised their right

to free movement and reside in

Spain.” It encourages citizens

to “stay informed on the latest

developments through the British

government’s website”.

▼ Jon and Kathryn Dobson with their
daughters Sarah, Emily and Jennifer.
‘They feel abandoned by their own
country but cannot get citizenship in
the country they’ve spent their lives’

Brexit deal. The current political

declaration contains a commitment

to “close cooperation in union-

led crisis management missions

and operations, both civilian and

military”. “It looks like they are

seeking leverage,” one diplomat told

the Guardian. Other senior offi cials

said they regarded the demand as

being part of a broader move for a

“clean break” from the EU in all parts

of the relationship.

Row back on general commitments

on Anglo-Irish cooperation

Offi cials have been told that the

UK wants to renege on the general

commitments on Ireland made

in December 2017 that ended

the fi rst phase of Brexit talks. EU

member states have been told

that London is moving from its

pledge of “frictionless trade” on the

Irish border to “as frictionless as

possible”, seen as a serious watering

down. According to reports by the

Irish broadcaster RTÉ ’s Europe

editor, Tony Connelly, Britain

is also resisting the agreement

that the commitments would be

“legally operable”.

Scrap the Irish border backstop

Johnson has frequently said he

wants the backstop scrapped. What

does that mean in detail? It emerged

this week that Britain wants to

strip all elements of the backstop

out of the withdrawal agreement,

leaving only a commitment to the

all-island electricity market and the

common travel area. The UK also

wants the backstop taken out of

the agreement and moved into the

political declaration. The UK has not

presented any alternative proposals,

with the taoiseach, Leo Varadkar,

saying on Thursday night that a

no-deal Brexit would mean checks

near the Irish border.

Ask Ireland to align with the UK

rather than the EU on food?

Johnson said this week he was

open to fi nding a way of treating

agrifood on a “common basis across

the island of Ireland”. This has

been interpreted to mean checks

at ports and airports on animals

and agricultural produce, doing

away with the need for them on

the Irish border. However, there

is speculation that what Johnson

has in mind is something diff erent

• regulatory alignment between
  Ireland and the UK on food. It
  would mean Ireland shifting its
  food standards whenever the UK
  diverge s from EU rules, for example
  allowing chlorinated chicken into
  supermarkets. This is a non-starter.

Changes to the dispute settlement

Johnson is also looking for changes

to the dispute mechanism with the

EU but has provided no concrete

proposals for an alternative. The

European Research Group has made

noises about stripping out any role

for the European court of justice

but this has baffl ed legal experts,

who point out the EU has already

dropped the plan to make the court

the fi nal arbiter in disputes.

And fi nally ...

The new demands on the level

playing fi eld have made a trade deal

more diffi cult, EU offi cials warned

this week. National parliaments will

have to agree the deal and offi cials

warned that given the resistance

across Europe to the recent Canada

free trade deal and to proposals

for a pact with the south American

Mercosur group, Johnson is likely to

encounter problems.

Daniel Boff ey

Brussels

Boris Johnson’s fi rst concrete proposal

for replacing the Irish backstop has hit

the buff ers. His envoy, David Frost,

yesterday proposed an all-Ireland food

standards zone, as well as giving the

Stormont assembly a say on whether

it would continue in the years ahead.

The attempt to give the proposed

arrangement what officials say is

democratic legitimacy by involving

Northern Irish politicians was knocked

back by the EU. Commission negoti-

ators said such a plan would leave

Ireland in a state of uncertainty.

EU offi cials involved in the nego-

tiations are also understood to have

lamented that Frost has been acting

“like a spokesman” for the prime min-

ister and that Theresa May’s envoy,

need for phytosanitary checks – meas-

ures to protect humans, animals and

plants from diseases, pests or contami-

nants – in animals and animal products

crossing the border on the island of Ire-

land, although other goods would not

be covered and it would not deal with

the issues of VAT and customs checks.

Earlier in the week the prime min-

ister had referred to the comments of

the former Democratic Unionist party

leader Ian Paisley, who had said of

Northern Ireland that the people were

British, but “the cattle were Irish”.

Johnson is insisting, however, in a

move designed to make the proposal

palatable to the DUP, that the arrange-

ment would have to “clearly enjoy the

consent of all parties and institutions

with an interest”.

It is understood the UK has sug-

gested there is a need for Stormont

to be able to vote on the continua-

tion of the common regulatory area,

described by EU offi cials as a “back-

stop-lite”. EU sources said this

suggestion was rebuff ed and recent

meetings had been a “disaster”, with

the gap between the two negotiating

teams seemingly widening by the day.

Sources said further discussions

over the UK’s preferred alternative

to the backstop were expected next

week.

Brussels talks

PM plan for

Ireland food

goods rejected

▲ The PM’s backstop plan would have

removed the need for checks on cattle

Olly Robbins, had at least been able

to talk around the problems encoun-

tered. EU sources said, however, that

the commission would continue to

meet negotiators for as long as Down-

ing Street wished it.

The prime minister is insisting in his

renegotiation that the Irish backstop,

which would keep Northern Ireland

in the single market and the whole of

the UK in a customs union to avoid a

hard border, must be ditched from the

withdrawal agreement.

He has, however, fl oated the idea

of Northern Ireland staying aligned

with EU standards on agrifoods,

which make up a large proportion of

the trade crossing the border with the

Irish Republic.

Such a move would remove the

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