Advanced technology cannot replace Brexit backstop, EU says

EU’s deputy Brexit negotiator says technology cannot yet offer ‘alternative arrangement’ sought by UK.

Hey, Britain: Forget the virtual backstop. It doesn’t exist yet.

That was the quick, blunt retort by the EU’s deputy chief Brexit negotiator, Sabine Weyand, on Sunday evening in response to a BBC report that the U.K.’s Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay, has renewed a suggestion that “technology” might provide an alternative to the backstop provision on the Northern Ireland border within the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.

Posting on Twitter, Weyand quickly asked and answered Barclay’s question: “Can technology solve the Irish border problem? Short answer: not in the next few years.”

Indeed, the BBC report that included Barclay’s remarks looked at technology currently in use on the border between Norway and Sweden, and concluded that it does not eliminate border checks. “A sophisticated computer system allows goods to be declared to customs before they leave warehouses,” the report said. “But lorries transporting goods must still stop at a staffed crossing for physical customs checks.”

The U.K. parliament voted last Tuesday to demand renegotiation of the backstop provision, which is intended to prevent the recreation of a border between Ireland and Northern Ireland — if necessary by keeping the whole of Britain inside of the EU’s customs union and in compliance with its rules, regulations and tariffs.

In approving the amendment demanding “alternative arrangements,” the parliament did not offer any specific proposals. U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, who supported the amendment, has hailed it as evidence that she can now deliver a majority in parliament in support of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement — provided the EU agrees to change the backstop.

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In an op-ed in the Telegraph on Sunday, May vowed to “battle” in Brussels and said she would confront the EU armed with “new ideas.” But May, too, has not put forward any specific proposals other than two ideas that the EU has flatly rejected: putting a time limit on the backstop or adding a clause allowing Britain to withdraw from it.

Brexit Secretary Barclay also made reference to “time limits” and “exit clauses,” but also suggested there could be solutions “in terms of technology.”

The EU has grown increasingly frustrated that the U.K. seems insistent on revisiting questions that were discussed extensively at the negotiation table before the 585-page withdrawal treaty was agreed in November. And in recent days, Weyand has led the effort to squash some of what Brussels regards as “magical thinking” on the British side.

One expert quoted by the BBC, David Henig of the UK Trade Policy Project think tank, reinforced Weyand’s view that no technological solution, such as a satellite system monitoring border crossings, would be ready anytime soon.

“Theoretically, I believe it could be done,” Henig told the BBC. “However, it would require huge amounts of trust and money. What happens if a lorry driver doesn’t register? And in any event, it certainly couldn’t be delivered in the next few years.”