Macron demands UK presents Brexit deal in 12 days

Emmanuel Macron demands UK present proposals to solve the backstop quandary within 12 days.

Emmanuel Macron has demanded a fast-tracked Brexit timetable. Picture: AFP.

French president Emmanuel Macron has issued a sudden and dramatic fast-tracked timetable of just 12 days for the United Kingdom to present written proposals to solve the Brexit backstop quandary.

Mr Macron’s surprise move to impose a September 30 cut off date for any new plans is well ahead of the EU Summit on October 17 and the Brexit departure date of October 31 and has put significant pressure on Boris Johnson’s government, which is battling a constitutional crisis surrounding the proroguing of parliament until October 14.

Mr Macron revealed France’s hardline stance in discussions with the Finnish prime minister Antti Rinne in Paris on Wednesday afternoon. Mr Macron believes the written proposals have to be submitted almost immediately in order to give all of the European Union member states sufficient time to consider them and avoid a no-deal Brexit.

Mr Rinne is currently the EU rotating president and he told Mr Macron that Donald Tusk, the European Council’s president, would pass on the message to the British.

Mr Rinne told Finnish reporters: “We need to know what the UK is proposing.“Loose talk about proposals for negotiations is irresponsible.The UK should make its possible own proposals very soon if they would like them to be discussed.”

He added: “We both agreed that it is now time for Boris Johnson to produce his own proposals in writing – if they exist. If no proposals are received by the end of September, then it’s over.”

While Mr Johnson has been in fresh talks with the EU president Jean Claude Juncker to try and solve the backstop conundrum, there was continued ill-feeling between Britain and the Continent in the European parliament.

Brexit party leader Nigel Farage accused the Luxembourg prime minister Xavier Bettel as a “pipsqueak who set out to ritually humiliate a British prime minister in the most astonishing way only to be greeted like a hero by President Macron at the Elysée Palace yesterday.” Earlier this week Mr Bettel was criticised for holding a solo press conference and ignoring British requests to move it inside so that Mr Johnson could be heard over the noise of nearby protestors.

But Mr Farage is concerned that the UK and the EU are “very close to a deal’’ that will still leave the UK under the auspices of the EU court. He said: “One thing is clear and that is from the emollient tone we’ve heard this morning from Juncker and (chief negotiator Michel) Barnier, we are actually very close to a deal on the backstop being agreed at the summit on the 17 October, and of course, both sides will try and present this as a negotiating victory.

“It’s maybe worth reminding ourselves, that this treaty, even without the backstop, is a very bad deal for Britain.

“It will leave us trapped inside European Union rules. It will leave us under the auspices of the European Court and having given everything away in the withdrawal agreement, the worst part is, that any future relationship relies on good faith.”