HELSINKI: Britain has come up with “nothing credible” to replace the controversial Irish backstop in its deal to leave the EU, Ireland’s foreign minister said Friday.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants the backstop — the fallback provisions for the border between EU member Ireland and UK-ruled Northern Ireland — to be scrapped completely.
With the clock ticking down to the October 31 departure date and Johnson insisting he will not postpone, the EU is pressing Britain to come up with workable alternatives.
“We all want to get a deal but at the moment nothing credible has come from the British government in the context of an alternative to the backstop,” Simon Coveney said as he arrived for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Helsinki.
“If that changes, great. We’ll look at it in Dublin but more importantly, it can be the basis of a discussion in Brussels but it’s got to be credible.”
After talks with his British counterpart Dominic Raab on the sidelines of the Helsinki meeting, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said London must come up with ideas soon.
“I have once again made it clear that it is now necessary for time reasons to put the (proposals) on the table as soon as possible,” Maas told reporters.
Fears among Brexit-supporters that the backstop could leave Britain tied indefinitely to EU rules were a major reason why British MPs voted down the current divorce deal three times.
Brussels and Dublin insist the backstop is essentially to safeguard the EU single market and avoid risking the return of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.
Johnson wants to replace the backstop with a commitment to find so-called “alternative arrangements” in the future, but Coveney said this was not good enough.
“We will not allow a really important element of the withdrawal agreement to be removed... to be replaced with something that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny and is simply a promise that we’ll do our best to solve the problem but not explain how,” he said.
“That is not an approach that either Ireland or the EU will support.”
Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok echoed the call for concrete proposals from London, saying “you cannot solve that (the Irish border problem) without details.”
Brexit negotiators from the two sides are to meet twice a week throughout September in a bid to find a way through the deadlock, London said on Thursday.
Johnson insists Britain will leave on October 31 come what may — even if it means crashing out in a chaotic “no deal” Brexit that causes economic turmoil.
Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said the prospect of no deal alarmed him.
“No-deal is a catastrophe for both sides, and could cost thousands and thousands of jobs and create misery for no reason,” he said.
“I still hope that reason will prevail.”
Britain has ‘nothing credible’ to replace Brexit backstop: Ireland
Britain has ‘nothing credible’ to replace Brexit backstop: Ireland
Venezuelans await political prisoners’ release after government vow
- Rights groups estimate there are 800 to 1,200 political prisoners held in Venezuela
CARACAS: Venezuelans waited Sunday for more political prisoners to be freed as ousted president Nicolas Maduro defiantly claimed from his US jail cell that he was “doing well” after being seized by US forces a week ago.
The government of interim president Delcy Rodriguez on Thursday began to release prisoners jailed under Maduro in a gesture of openness, after pledging to cooperate with Washington over its demands for Venezuelan oil.
The government said a “large” number would be released — but rights groups and the opposition say only about 20 have walked free since, including several prominent opposition figures.
Rights groups estimate there are 800 to 1,200 political prisoners held in Venezuela.
Rodriguez, vice president under Maduro, said Venezuela would take “the diplomatic route” with Washington, after Trump claimed the United States was “in charge” of the South American country.
“Venezuela has started the process, in a BIG WAY, of releasing their political prisoners. Thank you!” Trump said in a post late Saturday on his Truth Social platform.
“I hope those prisoners will remember how lucky they got that the USA came along and did what had to be done.”
Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were captured in a dramatic January 3 raid and taken to New York to stand trial on drug-trafficking and weapons charges, to which they pleaded not guilty.
Anxiety over prisoners
A detained police officer accused of “treason” against Venezuela died in state custody after a stroke and heart attack, the state prosecution service confirmed on Sunday.
Opposition groups said the man, Edison Jose Torres Fernandez, 52, had shared messages critical of Maduro’s government.
“We directly hold the regime of Delcy Rodriguez responsible for this death,” Justice First, part of the Venezuelan opposition alliance, said on X.
Families on Saturday night held candlelight vigils outside El Rodeo prison east of Caracas and El Helicoide, a notorious jail run by the intelligence services, holding signs with the names of their imprisoned relatives.
Prisoners include Freddy Superlano, a close ally of opposition figurehead Maria Corina Machado. He was jailed after challenging Maduro’s widely contested re-election in 2024.
“He is alive — that was what I was most afraid about,” Superlano’s wife Aurora Silva told reporters.
“He is standing strong and I am sure he is going to come out soon.”
Maduro meanwhile claimed he was “doing well” in jail in New York, his son Nicolas Maduro Guerra said in a video released Saturday by his party.
The ex-leader’s supporters rallied in Caracas on Saturday but the demonstrations were far smaller than Maduro’s camp had mustered in the past, and top figures from his government were notably absent.
The caretaker president has moved to placate the powerful pro-Maduro base by insisting Venezuela is not “subordinate” to Washington.
Pressure on Cuba
Vowing to secure US access to Venezuela’s vast crude reserves, Trump pressed top oil executives at a White House meeting on Friday to invest in Venezuela, but was met with a cautious reception.
Experts say Venezuela’s oil infrastructure is creaky after years of mismanagement and sanctions.
Washington has also confirmed that US envoys visited Caracas on Friday to discuss reopening their embassy there.
Trump on Sunday pressured Caracas’s leftist ally Cuba, which has survived in recent years under a US embargo thanks to cheap Venezuelan oil imports.
He urged Cuba to “make a deal” or face unspecified consequences, warning that the flow of Venezuelan oil and money to Havana would stop now that Maduro was gone.
Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel retorted on X that the Caribbean island was “ready to defend the homeland to the last drop of blood.”
“No one tells us what to do.”
Venezuela’s government in a statement called for “political and diplomatic dialogue” between Washington and Havana.
“International relations should be governed by the principals of international law — non-interference, sovereign equality of states and the right of peoples to govern themselves.”
