A senior European Union official has indicated that efforts for removing or renegotiating the Irish backstop, a controversial clause in Britain’s EU withdrawal agreement, would be in vain because the bloc won’t compromise on the fate of its member Ireland.
EU Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans said on Wednesday that the backstop, which sets out rules for how the only land border between Britain and the EU should be regulated after Brexit, was a “red line” for the EU and the bloc could not open its Brexit deal with London for further negotiations on the specific issue.
“We will support Ireland…the backstop is a red line we cannot negotiate with the British government,” Timmermans said while at an event in Krakow, Poland.
The comments come as critics of British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal have repeatedly suggested that the only way forward for the ratification of the deal in parliament would be a…