European Council President Donald Tusk said the EU is "unconvinced" by the U.K. government's latest proposals for a Brexit deal, which were also rejected by an influential group of lawmakers in the European Parliament.
Tusk said he had a telephone conversation with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, who reportedly said earlier that the U.K.'s proposals "fall short in a number of aspects" and pose "major obstacles."
"We stand fully behind Ireland," Tusk wrote on Twitter. "My message to [U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson]: We remain open but still unconvinced."
The leaders' comments were echoed by the European Parliament's Brexit Steering Group, or BSG, which coordinates and prepares the legislative body's deliberations and resolutions on Brexit. The group said Johnson's proposals do not form a basis for a withdrawal agreement that can be ratified by Parliament because they fail to address key concerns regarding the islandwide Ireland economy, the Good Friday Agreement and the European single market.
"The U.K. proposals do not match even remotely what was agreed as a sufficient compromise in the backstop," the BSG said in a statement.
On customs and regulatory aspects, the plans laid out by the U.K. would "breach a range of fundamental principles and red lines" of the European Parliament, according to the BSG.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who also spoke with Ireland's Varadkar, reiterated that the U.K. proposals have "problematic points," and that further talks with the U.K. were needed.
Juncker and Varadkar agreed that the U.K. should publish the legal text of its proposals.
If the EU will discard the latest Brexit offer, Johnson's "Plan B" would be to introduce a time limit to the backstop, Bloomberg News reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter. The EU has reportedly given Johnson a week to revise his proposals or risk another delay to the Brexit date, currently set at Oct. 31, according to Bloomberg News.
