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Here are the lines to take by EU capitals, as circulated this morning by EU institutions, in response to Boris Johnson’s letter to @eucopresident Donald Tusk
1/ the backstop is a “necessary, legally operative solution...to prevent the return of a hard border on the island of Ireland”
2/ the EU “regrets that the new UK govt wants to replace a legally operative solution with a commitment to try to find a solution - yet to be found - by the end of the transition period”
3/ the “EU also regrets that the new UK govt does not provide any concrete proposals as to what these alternative arrangements could be”
4/ Commitments to replace the backstop in whole or in part were already made in the Joint Interpretative Instrument agreed in Strasbourg between the EU and UK in March
5/ that instrument was agreed “only because the backstop is part of the WA as an insurance policy for all circumstances”
6/ “Prime Minister Johnson’s proposals do not provide any such guarantees”
7/ furthermore his letter acknowledges that such proposals “may not be in place” by the end of the transition period
8/ So, essentially a very cool response from the EU. There is particular concern about Johnson ripping up the commitments made in the Dec 2017 Joint Report
9/ As one EU source points out, the backstop is expressly designed to prevent a future UK govt or Parliament reneging on prior commitments. That’s the whole point of it, and why it’s needed as an insurance policy
