Boris Johnson’s call to drop the Irish backstop from any Brexit deal was rejected by the EU, with Donald Tusk dismissing the idea and a European Commission task force describing a letter from the U.K. prime minister as “misleading” and “inaccurate.”
Tusk, the European Council president, responded to Johnson’s letter by saying that anyone “not proposing realistic alternatives” to the backstop does “in fact support reestablishing a border. Even if they do not admit it.”
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Tusk said on Twitter on Tuesday that the backstop “is an insurance to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland unless and until an alternative is found.”
In a letter to Tusk on Monday, Johnson said the U.K. could legislate to ensure no infrastructure on the Irish border and urged the EU to do the same. He also said the two sides should discuss so-called “alternative arrangements” for policing the border, and promised to make other “commitments” in case the measures are not ready by the final departure date.
The reaction to Johnson’s letter from the European Commission was as blunt as that from Tusk. In a note sent to EU countries, and seen by POLITICO, the Commission’s task force dealing with Brexit described parts of Johnson’s letter as “inaccurate” and “misleading.”
