Confirmation that Johnson is now happy to tear up the GFA to get his way and is merely waiting for the clock to tick down:
EU member states have been told by the European Commission that the UK government under Boris Johnson has reneged on London's commitment to protecting the all-Ireland economy and North-South cooperation as enshrined in the Joint Report between London and Brussels in December 2017. Officials were this afternoon told that London was moving from a position where the aim had been to have "frictionless" trade on the island of Ireland, to merely having trade that was "as frictionless as possible". This was in effect a minimalist commitment to what Theresa May had signed up to in the Joint Report, and which was later fleshed out as a legal protocol in the Withdrawal Agreement.
During a 90-minute briefing by a senior official from the European Commission Task Force, member states were also warned that the UK is now resisting the ambition of having a "legally operable" solution for the island of Ireland in the event of a renegotiated Withdrawal Agreement. Instead they were pushing for what one the senior figure described as "aspirational" measures to avoid a hard border.
The stark briefing comes amid deepening evidence that the UK has still to bring forward "concrete" proposals on how they believe the Irish backstop might be replaced. "The one message that came back very forcefully from the meeting was that there are no concrete proposals," says one EU source. "Nothing has been put on the table, not even really a proper sketch or hint of a plan. We're waiting. But for the moment there is zilch."
EU member states have been told by the European Commission that the UK government under Boris Johnson has reneged on London's commitment to protecting the all-Ireland economy and North-South cooperation as enshrined in the Joint Report between London and Brussels in December 2017.
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