There was an “openness” within the European Union to consider other ways of avoiding a hard border in Ireland to help secure a Brexit deal, an influential European MEP has said. “If UK has a better proposal for the backstop, we are open to discuss these things. It just all depends on whether there is also an openness on the UK side,” she said. “The consequences of no deal, I think, go beyond what we can imagine but we have to be prepared . Ms Hubner said that the deep divisions British prime minister Theresa May was struggling with in her own party on Brexit were “certainly not helpful”.

Source: The Irish Times September 06, 2018 18:45 UTC