‘Ireland’s border is OUR border’: EU chief Juncker plays hardball vowing the bloc will NOT cave in to May’s backstop demands – but admits the risks of no deal Brexit are ‘rising’
ean-Claude Juncker made clear the EU is playing hardball on Brexit today – flatly dismissing Theresa May’s plan to overhaul the Irish border backstop.
As the wrangling intensified, the EU commission president delivered a stinging rebuke to calls from the PM to rework the insurance policy – saying it ‘cannot be removed’ from the divorce package.
He also dismissed the idea that the other states will abandon Ireland for fear of damaging their own economies, saying solidarity ‘goes to the heart of what being a member of the EU means’.
‘Ireland’s border is our border,’ he said.
Mr Juncker was greeted warmly by former Ukip leader Nigel Farage in Brussels today, despite their differences over Brexit
Mr Coveney said Theresa May (pictured in Downing Street today) was desperately trying to ‘accommodate’ the right wing of her party despite it undermining her own position
The intervention came as Cabinet ministers played down the wall of rejection from the EU following Mrs May’s triumph in a series of Commons votes last night.
One told MailOnline that everyone needed to remain ‘calm’ as ‘noise’ from Brussels was only to be expected.
‘This is just what the EU does. It never makes any kind of deal until the last moment,’ they said.
‘We are inevitably going to get all sorts of dire warnings and blank denials.
‘It is just a lot of noise. People just need to stay calm and let the PM work.’
In a glimmer of light for Mrs May, the Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki revealed he had phoned German Chancellor Angela Merkel to urge her to find a way through the impasse.
Speaking after Mr Juncker and Mr Barnier in the European Parliament, former Ukip leader Nigel Farage said the prospect of a no-deal Brexit had increased because of the attitude of Brussels ‘fanatics’ who refused to compromise.