Irish PM Says Friday ‘Reasonable’ Deadline for New Brexit Offer

(Bloomberg) --

Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar pointed to Friday as a “reasonable” deadline for an improved offer from the U.K. to break the Brexit impasse, as the deadlock over the Irish border continued.

Speaking to reporters in Dublin on Saturday, he said the ideas submitted by Prime Minister Boris Johnson fell short of providing the basis for deeper negotiations before leaders gather on October 17 to consider the state of play on Brexit.

“Plenty of time” remains for the U.K. to come up with a better plan, Varadkar said, adding Friday isn’t an “absolutely rigid” deadline. “If you know over the next 24 hours, an extra 48 hours are needed, we’re not going to give up on the prospects of the deal over that.”

The key problems are still Johnson’s plans to give Northern Ireland’s power-sharing assembly a veto over rule alignment with the European Union and take the region out of the bloc’s custom union after Brexit. Taken together, these raise the prospect of a return to hard border in Ireland, something Varadkar has vowed to resist.

To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Flanagan in Dublin at pflanagan23@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Chad Thomas at cthomas16@bloomberg.net, Dara Doyle

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