LONDON 3 Sep (ANA) - Brussels has responded with bafflement at Boris Johnson’s claims of progress in the Brexit talks, with EU officials warning that discussions are going nowhere.

 

The prime minister and his cabinet have insisted that the outlines of a deal are in the making and that attempts by MPs to rule out a no-deal exit will kill that positive momentum.

 

But officials said that more than two weeks after Johnson’s meeting with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, no alternatives to the backstop had been tabled and that there had instead been a renewed clash over Brussels’ need for an immediately legally operable solution for Ireland.

 

The Guardian understands that Johnson’s senior EU adviser, David Frost, has so far highlighted the legal articles relating to the trade in goods that the government wants removed from the Irish protocol in the withdrawal agreement.(ANA)

FA/ANA/3 September 2019------