What's Going On With Brexit? Hopes Fade For Agreement To Ease Britain Out Of EU Over Irish Border Question

Hopes for Britain’s soft exit from the European Union faded Friday as an understanding for how to handle the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland remained elusive.

EU negotiator Michel Barnier met with senior British and Irish officials, but no written proposal emerged, though Barnier said negotiators had made concrete progress.

European Commission Presdient Jean-Claude Juncker said Britain will be solely to blame for a no-deal Brexit. Juncker said the latest proposal for keeping the border open between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland still wanting.

Juncker told the German newspaper Augsburger Allegemeine the EU is doing “everything we can to reach an agreement. If this fails in the end, the responsibility lies solely with the British side.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to meet with EU officials Oct. 17 ahead of the Oct. 31 Brexit deadline. EU ministers want a written proposal on how to keep goods and people flowing across the Irish border ahead of the Oct. 17 session and have demanded a written proposal within a week.

"Michel Barnier stressed that it is essential that there is a fully operational solution in the Withdrawal Agreement to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland, protect the all-island economy and the integrity of the Single Market," the EU said.

"The EU remains open and willing to examine any workable and legally operative proposals that meet all these objectives."

The EU has indicated it’s willing to postpone the Oct. 31 deadline, but Johnson is opposed and has said he would defy action by Parliament to put off the divorce, deal or no deal. Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, had negotiated a “backstop” agreement that would allow Northern Ireland to remain in the EU but Johnson has rejected that as unacceptable, calling it a “surrender” to the trading alliance.

The EU has rejected ideas on replacing the “backstop” as inadequate and might even require the EU to suspend its own rules.

Johnson’s rhetoric this week has infuriated Parliament, leading to doubt lawmakers would approve any deal Johnson worked out.

The BBC reported a three-month deadline extension is the most likely outcome although the 27 other countries in the alliance would take Johnson’s position into account.

A Northern Ireland appellate court Friday rejected a challenge to a no-deal Brexit, saying it’s not appropriate for the court to act on the chance a chaotic exit would undermine the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement.

“It is not our task, however, to evaluate the merits of a U.K. withdrawal from the EU without an agreement,” the 36-page judgment said.