Barnier warns Brexit deal could still be sunk by Irish border issue

EU Brexit chief Michel Barnier has warned that a deal could fall at the final hurdle if a solution isn’t found to the Irish border issue.

Barnier revealed on Friday morning that the Withdrawal Agreement is now 90% complete as the result of intensive negotiations with the UK last week – an increase of 5% on the previous week.

But the French politician replied with a clear “yes” when asked whether the impasse over the Irish border issue could make his work on the rest of the deal irrelevant.

“90% of the accord on the table has been agreed with Britain,” he told France radio. “I’m convinced a deal is necessary, I’m still not sure we’ll get one.”

That was a notably less optimistic assessment than the one given by European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, who on Thursday confidently predicted a deal “will be done.”

MORE: EU’s Juncker confident Brexit deal ‘will be done’ despite delay

Barnier put Brexit down to “nostalgia” and said voters “were not told all the consequences” at the time of the referendum.

But he said he hoped the “negative” negotiations would conclude with a deal “within a few weeks, a few months, as soon as possible.”

Intensive negotiations between the UK and EU are set to resume the week after next in a bid to resolve the one issue holding back a deal.

The EU insist the ‘backstop’ must apply to Northern Ireland only, which is fiercely opposed by the DUP, whose MPs prop-up the government.

But German chancellor Angela Merkel is among EU leaders pushing for Barnier to provide a guarantee that the backstop never comes into force so that May can get a deal through the UK parliament.

“Where there is a will there should be a way,” she said on Thursday.

One idea discussed at this week’s European Council is to extend the transition period long enough for a free trade deal, which made border checks unnecessary, to be agreed and come into force.

May’s admission that she was considering the proposal sparked calls for her to resign from within the Conservative party.

Foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt said on Friday: “There is a situation in which you’ve negotiated a free trade agreement and its going to take a few months more to implement – months not years – when it might be helpful to have the ability to extend the transition period.”

Another possible solution is to include provisions for a UK-wide customs union with the EU to kick-in if there is a gap between the transition ending and a free trade deal taking effect.

MORE: Theresa May admits longer Brexit transition is possible

EU politicians will discuss the state of play in Brexit talks next week at the European parliament in Strasbourg.

Syed Kamall, the leader of the Conservative’s group, is “quite confident that there will be a deal by the end of the year,” a spokesperson said on Friday.

Although he added he was “a bit afraid” MEPs could veto the deal for ideological reasons.

A spokesperson for the centre-right EPP, the largest group in the parliament, said any Brexit deal will only be blocked “if there are no clear conditions to avoid a border in Ireland.”

The prime minister has been invited to address European parliament. She refused to speak to all MEPs but agreed in March to meet the leaders of political groups.

However, a European parliament official said there had been progress made towards setting a date for the meeting.

MORE: EU’s Juncker confident Brexit deal ‘will be done’ despite delay