MNI SOURCES: Brexit Endgame Talks Near Amid Improved Climate

By David Thomas 

     LONDON (MNI) - EU leaders will plot endgame strategy for Brexit talks in

Salzburg next week, with officials reporting an improved climate in talks with

the UK although the tough Irish border issue must be resolved for an agreement

to be clinched by November.

     Optimism about averting the danger that the UK crashes out of the bloc

without any deal next March revived after EU Brexit Negotiator Michel Barnier

told a business audience in Slovenia Sept. 10 an agreement was achievable within

six-to-eight weeks if negotiators are realistic.

     EU officials said while the atmosphere in talks has warmed, Barnier's

comments were nothing new.

     "He expressed the same ideas a month ago - namely, it will be very hard to

reach a deal in October and realism will be needed," said one source, "It's in

everyone's interests to make it work, no-one wants a no deal."

     --CLOCK TICKING

     The EU line remains the same, said another, "it is just the urgency becomes

more and more an issue - the clock is ticking."

     But officials agreed there has been a big improvement in relations between

the two sides since the start of 2018 when they despaired of talks going

anywhere.

     "That was like - 'hello, is there someone to talk to here?'" said one

official.

     The Salzburg summit is one of the so-called 'Leaders' Agenda' series.

Described by one official as 'officially informal', these permit leaders to

discuss policy in a freer, more strategic way without deadline pressure or any

need to hammer out last-minute political bargains.

     UK Prime Minister Theresa May will attend a dinner Sept. 19, pitching a

'message' on Brexit to the EU-27 ahead of talks without her over the next day's

lunch.

     --IRISH BORDER

     Following agreements on budget and citizens' rights, the big obstacle

remains the wording of a legal text for the so-called 'backstop' solution to the

Irish border issue.

     As one official says - "If Ireland comes through, the rest will come

through."

     While EU negotiators welcomed "positive elements" of the Chequers Plan put

forward by the UK prime minister in July, Michel Barnier slated others, in

particular the proposal that the UK would collect import tariffs and apply

Brussels' trade regulations on behalf of the EU as a way of resolving the border

question.

     The EU's own standing proposal for the backstop involves a 'border in the

Irish Sea', leaving Northern Ireland still inside the EU customs union in the

immediate post-Brexit period, but this has been dismissed by members of the

province's DUP party, whose votes are crucial to keeping May's government in

office.

     "The EU is now seeing how it can ensure that the necessary controls are

implemented in a de-dramatised way," one EU official said.

     While the October 18-19 summit remains the official target date for a

Brexit deal, officials increasingly think a deal will take at least a few more

weeks and are pencilling in a dedicated Brexit summit for November 12-13.

     October now "seems a bit difficult to manage" - in the words of one.

     "I think there is a chance if there is political willingness," said one

source, "but there again there has to be a bit of a drama - but we're all used

to emergency summitry."

--MNI London Bureau; +44208-865-3829; email: Jason.Webb@marketnews.com

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