(6 Feb 2019) The European Parliament's top Brexit lawmaker says the EU assembly stands by the divorce agreement sealed with Britain and that there can be no renegotiation of a provision guaranteeing that the Irish border remains open.
Guy Verhofstadt, who heads the assembly's Brexit Steering Group, said the withdrawal agreement is fair and said they would not start the "whole work on the withdrawal agreement" again.
British Prime Minister Theresa May is due in Brussels on Thursday to seek concessions to the Brexit deal.
Verhofstadt said "what we will not do is to give up Ireland."
Referring to the backstop - a safeguard to keep trade moving freely between the UK's Northern Ireland and EU member Ireland - Verhofstadt said "for us there is no agreement possible if this backstop is not in the agreement because this backstop is an insurance against the return of the violence in Northern Ireland."
Britain is due to leave the EU on March 29 but there is no idea how it will leave after UK lawmakers overwhelmingly voted against the deal, with many doing so because of their opposition to the backstop.
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