UK, EU officials in talks on Brexit deal assurances - Varadkar
EU and UK officials were looking at ways to deliver guarantees to help Prime Minister Theresa May get her Brexit deal through parliament, said Irish Taoseach Leo Varadkar on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters on a trip to Mali, Varadkar said there was "close contact between the UK and EU institutions as to whether a further set of written guarantees, explanations and assurances could make a difference".
May is due to put her withdrawal deal to parliament on January 15 having pulled it unexpectedly last month when she realised MPs would not back it. They cited concerns over the Irish backstop arrangement which would come into force if no trade deal was agreed after departure.
"Our intent, once the withdrawal agreement has been ratified by Westminster and the European Parliament, is to get into talks on the future relationship on the new economic and trade treaty with Britain, on the new security partnership with Britain," he said.
"We don’t want to trap the UK into anything - we want to get on to the talks about the future relationship right away. I think it’s those kind of assurances we are happy to give."
The Irish leader said "any assurances of this kind would not amount to a renegotiation of the withdrawal agreement. Instead, they would take the form of a clarification".
In Brussels, Nathalie Loiseau, the French Europe minister, told reporters as she arrived at the EU’s general affairs council that the withdrawal agreement would not be renegotiated.
Asked how the EU could prove to British MPs that it does not want to use the backstop, she said: "We have said it repeatedly. The president said it at the end of the previous European council. Indeed, we all want to have a fruitful, profitable relationship with the United Kingdom in the future. So the backstop is just a last resort solution."
"These are political assurances. But there is nothing more we can do. The withdrawal agreement is indeed a good agreement, both for the UK and the European Union. We should stick to it."