The British media has picked up Barnier's pre-Salzburg comments in a press conference about improving the EU's proposal for the Irish border, with many interpreting it as a sign of compromise. He said it was not about having land or sea borders but arranging a series of technical checks and defining who does them and where. They could for example be carried out away from the border. The immediate reaction was to think he was talking about checks carried out on goods crossing the Irish border, even the BBC got it wrong apparently.
"The EU's negotiator said he wanted most new physical checks to be carried out away from the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, a key demand of Conservative MPs".
No, the checks that Barnier mentioned are ones carried out on goods travelling between Northern Ireland and Great Britain although you still need to read the whole thing twice since the bulk of the report spends a lot ot time talking about the border between the Republic and NI and only later are Barnier's actual words quoted (HERE) to make things clear:
"We are clarifying which goods arriving in Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK would need to be checked and where, when and by whom these checks could be performed," he said. "We can also clarify that most checks can take place away from the border at a company premises or at the markets."
In other words it is simply a way of making a new internal UK border less visible and hence more acceptable to the DUP in Ireland. I am not sure this will make any real difference. Far from being a softening of the EU's line, as some Brexit supporting elements may have thought, it is more an attempt to show the UK how it might make another compromise. How the Brexiteers see this will be interesting,
The Independent seem slightly confused and don't actually comment about which border it is (HERE) although they do quote Barnier's words accurately.
This so called "softening" apparently amounts to carrying out checks away from the border, something that both sides have known is possible for ages since it's part of the WTO rules. Sabine Weyand confirmed as much in answer to a question from Andrea Jenkyns MP when the parliamentary select committee visited Brussels on 3rd September.
It all seems a change of tone rather than any substantial change in the EU's position.
Update 1: The "softening" of the EU's position is apparently set to be rejected by Theresa May according to this report in The Guardian (HERE). So much for hopes of a breakthrough. The Irish border problem, said by BoJo to be a myth, appears to be insoluble. The EU propose a solution and we reject it. We propose another and they reject it.
Update 2 : It didn't take long for the DUP to pour cold water on Barnier's new found flexibility and his proposal for the Irish border (HERE). This is no surprise but Nigel Dodds, the Unionist MP had this rather predictable comment:
"Despite the talk of “improvements” the backstop being insisted upon by the EU would mean a different regime for Northern Ireland compared to the rest of the U.K," he said.
"It still means a border down the Irish Sea although with different kinds of checks. The fact is that both Theresa May and the Labour Party have said no British Prime Minister could accept such a concept. It is not just unionists who object.
"And anyone with the desire to see our economy prosper will not want to see barriers put in the way of sales to and from our biggest market in the rest of the UK.
"There is however one upside in all of this. Having dismissed technology as magical thinking for the border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland it is suddenly okay for the border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. Progress of sorts!”
I don't think Barnier's backstop included any technology let alone magical thinking, just normal physical border checks, just not done at the border itself.
