The moods in Britain and the European Union have swung between hope and gloom over an intractable dispute about the Irish border, shifts that came only two days ahead of a summit once seen as the last moment to reach a deal on Britain's divorce from the bloc.
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After a flurry of weekend meetings had raised expectations for a Brexit agreement only to dash them again, EU and British leaders sought to keep alive the possibility that Wednesday's summit could see a Brexit breakthrough, despite their conflicting stances.
After a year and a half of talks aimed at a smooth break up, both sides were still dogged by the same issue - how to ensure that no hard border is created between the EU's Ireland and Britain's Northern Ireland once Brexit happens on March 29.
EU Council president and summit host Donald Tusk searched for a positive outlook on Monday.
He used a quote saying "It always seems impossible until it's done" before adding himself "let us not give up". At the same time, he acknowledged that a break up with no rules in place "is more likely than ever before".
Despite a failed meeting on Sunday between the two sides' Brexit negotiators, British Prime Minister Theresa May told the House of Commons in London on Monday that "I do not believe the EU and the UK are far apart."
Yet a chasm remains over a solution for the Irish border.
The EU wants Northern Ireland to stay in its customs union to avoid a hard, policed land border between it and Ireland. But May says that would create "a border in the Irish Sea" between two parts of the United Kingdom, a scenario that she and Britain will not accept.
Britain is proposing instead to keep all of the UK in a customs union with the bloc - but only temporarily. Tying Britain to the EU on customs would limit the UK's power to strike new trade deals around the world, a key goal of those who voted to leave the EU.
"I need to be able to look the British people in the eye and say this 'backstop' is a temporary solution," May told the MPs.
Insisting that a Brexit divorce deal was "achievable", May said the border dispute should not "derail the prospects of a good deal and leave us with the no-deal outcome that no one wants".
May is under intense pressure from her Conservative Party and its parliamentary allies not to give any more ground in Brexit negotiations.
May's political allies in Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionist Party, stand ready to scuttle a Brexit deal over the Irish border issue.
Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney, speaking at a meeting Monday of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, said the delays in solving the border issue were frustrating. He suggested that May was reneging on part of Britain's commitment, made in December, to ensure that there is no hard border on the island of Ireland.
"Nobody wants to ever trigger the backstop, but it needs to be there as an insurance mechanism, to calm nerves that we're not going to see physical border infrastructure re-emerging," Coveney said.
Australian Associated Press
