Thread by @pietercleppe

My latest @telegraph comment: With the prorogation of Parliament, the big question is whether the EU will now soften its position, and make concessions around the backstop:
telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/…

Boris Johnson and his allies have been very transparent with their strategy. The idea is to make sure that there are only two options left: a deal acceptable to the UK, or “no deal”.

There is already some evidence of Brussels softening its position. The EU no longer rules out any legally-binding changes to Theresa May's deal, having previously repeated ad nauseam that there would be no reopening of the Withdrawal Agreement.

As German FT commentator Wolfgang Münchau writes, “the German media have been obsessed with the second referendum campaign..What yesterday’s decision did was to make it absolutely clear to the EU that the UK parliament won’t stop a no-deal Brexit.”

Boris Johnson himself admits in his letter to Tusk that alternative arrangements to prevent a hard Irish border may not be ready by the end of the transition stage in 2023, while Austria’s leading diplomat charged with Brexit thinks it may take 10 to 15 years to sort this out.

Perhaps Ireland could give UK the benefit of the doubt that it will voluntarily extend remaining under the EU’s customs roof for a few more years if it turns out that a time-limited backstop of, for example five years, is not enough time to put in place alternative arrangements

Given how many wonder *why* Ireland should trust the UK: If there would indeed not be any trust between Ireland and UK (which I dispute), surely it's not reasonable to ask the UK to outsource its trade policy to the EU until Ireland declares that is no longer needed (= backstop)?

All sides will simply need to trust each other, given the nature of international law. Also, I think it's important that friends tell each other the truth. Belgium, NL, Germany, France should urge both Ireland and the UK to make concessions, to sort this all out, given the stakes