French president Emmanuel Macron has given Boris Johnson until the end of the week to fundamentally revise his Brexit plan. This move increases the chances of the negotiations imploding within days. The UK proposals tabled last week are not regarded in Brussels as being a basis for a deal and Macron emphasised it was up to the UK to think again before an upcoming EU summit.
After declining to meet with the prime minister in person, Macron further insisted during a phone call on Sunday that the talks would only be advanced through Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator.
Barnier has already said he does not have a mandate from the EU27 to agree a deal on the terms so far presented by Downing Street. The prime minister’s chief negotiator, David Frost, has also been repeatedly told there will no last-minute negotiations with leaders at the summit on 17 October.
According to The Guardian, the British proposals involve the return of a customs border on the island of Ireland and a Democratic Unionist party veto on Northern Ireland staying in the EU’s single market for goods, an arrangement designed to avoid checks on the border.
