IMPOSSIBLE? -BREXIT- COMPROMISE!

LONDON : Britain and the EU should be able to reach an unlikely compromise deal on Brexit, former European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso said Tuesday, citing past last-gasp  breakthroughs.

The former Portuguese prime minister said European Union leaders had remarkable capacity for pulling off agreements that seemed impossible. ''We are now in what seems a dead end in the negotiations,'' Borroso told a Euronews Brexit conference in London.

''It is possible, with some creativity and  imagination to find some kind of compromise. ''There is still some room for some negotiation.''

Citing crises such as Greek financial collapse, he said : ''The European Commission has a remarkable capacity to find compromises that seem impossible until they are done.''

He said Brussels would ''naturally agree''. If Britain asked for an extension to its scheduled March 29 departure date.

''Everybody needs to move a little,'' said Barrosso, now a non-executive chairman at Goldman Sachs  investment bank.

''Europe should make an effort to accommodate some of the concerns.''

Kwasi Kwarteng, a junior minister in Brexit department, said the government was not looking at extending the departure date and was confident of striking  a withdrawal  agreement

Prime Minister Theresa May sealed a Brexit deal with Brussels but British MPs overwhelmingly rejected it last month, with Conservative rebels concerned about the Irish border backstop proposals.

The backstop is a clause in the withdrawal agreement that keeps Britain in the EU customs union until a way is found to ensure there is no return to hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

''We're trying to get an concession, a movement on the backstop. We understand that tackling this issue is a challenge but it is not insurmountable,'' said Kwarteng.

''We can with enough flexibility and imagination, reach a deal,'' he said. [AFP]

The honor and serving of the latest operational research on Brexit, continues.