BRUSSELS: Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney warned on Friday that time was running out for Britain and the European Union to hammer out a divorce deal with the British Brexit minister also saying the moment of truth was approaching.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed that Britain will leave the EU on Oct 31 whether or not a deal has been agreed with the bloc, and while both sides say they are keen to reach an agreement, there is little sign of the deadlock being broken.

Johnson’s opponents say leaving the EU without a deal to keep most of its trading arrangements in place would plunge Britain into economic chaos. The government says it has made preparations to avoid serious disruption.

The EU agreed a withdrawal package with former Prime Minister Theresa May but this was rejected three times by the British parliament over the “Irish backstop” — an insurance policy to prevent the return of a hard border between the British province of Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

After a meeting with EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels, Ireland’s Coveney said negotiations had to be on the basis of a “serious proposal” from the British on how they would replace the backstop.

“That hasn’t happened yet and until there is a serious proposal in writing ... then the gaps that are wide at the moment will remain. And time is running out,” he told reporters.

Barnier said the bloc was firmly united on insisting on a legally operative fix for the Irish border issue, saying it needed to avoid a hard border and protect the integrity of the EU’s single market.

“The onus is on the British prime minister and his team,” Coveney said, adding that Ireland was open to extending the Brexit departure date. “An extension is preferable to no deal,” he said.

Britain is due to present concrete legal texts on their Brexit plans next week after the Conservative Party conference.

This month, British lawmakers forced through a law which compels Johnson to seek an extension to Brexit unless he has agreed a new deal with the EU by Oct 19 or got parliament’s approval to leave without an agreement, an outcome a majority of lawmakers and many businesses believe would be calamitous.

Johnson has repeatedly said he would abide by the law, which he has dubbed the “surrender act”, but Britain would definitely leave on Oct 31 without explaining the apparent contradiction.

“We will obey the law, but we’re confident we can come out on Oct 31 and the best way to do that is to get a deal,” Johnson told reporters on Friday.

“That’s why the surrender act is so damaging,” he added. “It has had the effect with our European friends making them think: ‘maybe parliament can block this thing, maybe they will be forced to extend.’ If you’re in a negotiation that obviously makes it more difficult.” Britain’s Brexit minister Stephen Barclay also met Barnier on Friday and said there was a long way to go until they reached a deal.

“I think we are coming to the moment of truth in these negotiations,” Barclay said in a television interview, repeating the message that the backstop had to go but a deal could be struck with good will on both sides.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2019