Johnson’s Five Principles in His Bid to Break Brexit Deadlock

(Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson set out the principles of his Brexit proposal in a letter to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, saying he hopes the plan could form the basis for “rapid negotiations.”

Failure to get a deal “would represent a failure of statecraft for which we would all be responsible,” the British prime minister wrote. “Our predecessors have tackled harder problems: we can surely solve this one.”

Johnson then went on to outline the five principles that guide his proposal:

• Compatibility with the Northern Ireland peace agreement: this, Johnson wrote, is the “highest priority for all.”
• It conforms with areas of longstanding U.K.-Irish cooperation, including a common travel area encompassing the two nations.
• It creates the potential for an all-Ireland regulatory zone covering goods and agricultural products “ensuring that goods regulations in Northern Ireland are the same as those in the rest of the EU.”
• The principle of consent: The Northern Ireland assembly would be given a say before the regulatory zone came into force, and every four years thereafter.
• Northern Ireland would be fully part of the U.K. customs territory after the end of a transition period -- not the EU Customs Union -- and the U.K. would be in charge of its own trade policy.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Thomas Penny, Stuart Biggs

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