Key allies of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s have said that she is set to reject Boris Johnson’s plans to scrap the Irish Backstop in the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, as reported in Business Insider on Wednesday.
The trip to Berlin is Boris Johnson’s first foreign trip since becoming Prime Minister where he will receive full military honours outside the German chancellery on Wednesday evening, followed by a sit-down in where they will discuss Brexit and other European issues.
It will also serve as his first Brexit escapade as he intends to ask Chancellor Merkel for the removal of the Irish Backstop, which is designed to prevent the erection of a hard border between Northern Ireland the Republic of Ireland.
The meeting will take place on Wednesday afternoon, where Angela Merkel is expected to give a firm rejection to his proposal.
Johnson’s plan was rejected by the EU itself, following a four-page letter to EU Council President Donald Tusk on Monday, describing the Irish Backstop as “inconsistent with the sovereignty of the UK as a state”. A position consistent with the Conservative and Unionist Party that Northern Ireland will not be separate from the UK.
He also mentioned that the UK plans for its “laws and regulations” to “potentially diverge from those of the EU. That is the point of our exit and our ability to enable this is central to our future democracy.”
“There cannot and will not be new negotiations. It is completely impossible that the backstop will be removed from the agreement or softened” said Florian Hahn, European policy spokesperson for Merkel’s governing Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party.
“Boris Johnson wants to smash his head through the wall. But the wall is thicker than he thinks” he added.
Another Merkel ally, Norbert Röttgen, told The Guardian: “Merkel is politically and emotionally well inclined towards the British, and her willingness to maintain friendly relations between the two countries will be on display on Wednesday.”
He slammed the demand as not a serious one and said that the the extent to which the UK wishes to “humiliate itself” to secure a trade deal with the US “has not gone unnoticed in Berlin.”