Michel Barnier emphasised that the backstop was an insurance policy until technology finds a fix for the problem COSTAS BALTAS/REUTERSThe EU has hinted that “alternative arrangements” could be found to avoid triggering the controversial Irish backstop during the transition period after Brexit. The opening could be an avenue for a future Conservative leader to pursue this autumn without tearing up the draft withdrawal treaty negotiated last year. In an American interview Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, emphasised that the backstop of a UK-wide customs union to avoid a hard border emerging in Ireland was an insurance policy until technology finds a fix for the problem. “The backstop is insurance, in case we do not find [a] solution,” he told The New York Review of Books. “It could be what we call alternative arrangements: technology, drones, invisible controls.

Source: The Times May 30, 2019 11:03 UTC