What are the areas of contention and how likely is it that the UK, the EU and Ireland will find a solution to them?

What is the Irish border problem in Brexit?

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There are two discrete but entangled elements to the impasse in Brexit negotiations over the Irish border: the “backstop”, which is an insurance policy that Ireland wants to ensure the border remains completely open to trade, people, and services in the event of no deal; and the second set of negotiations on the future relationship between the UK and the EU and therefore Ireland.

Why is there an impasse?

The UK and the EU agreed at the end of the first phase of Brexit negotiations in December that there would be regulatory alignment between both parts of the island of Ireland in the event of no deal. That December deal was struck and then undone after objections by the Democratic Unionist party, which had not been consulted. To placate their concerns that Northern Ireland would, post-Brexit, be treated differently, Theresa May also agreed there would be “no regulatory barriers” in the Irish sea. This immediately sowed the seeds for an insoluble problem unless the UK struck a deal which involved remaining in the single market and the customs union, both red lines for the prime minister.

What is the EU’s position?

The EU has proposed legal text that establishes “a common regulatory area” between Ireland and the UK in Northern Ireland, in other words a special deal for Northern Ireland.

What is the UK’s position?

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Theresa May is fully signed up to the need for a backstop and no infrastructure on the Irish border, but has pledged not to leave Northern Ireland in a different regulatory territory to Britain, something she says amounts to border in the Irish sea which no prime minister could accept.

What is Michel Barnier’s improved offer?

EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has offered to change the protocol in the draft withdrawal agreement to address the political sensitivities in Westminster ahead of the crunch Conservative party conference. This is not strictly new as the EU and Ireland have been pressing the UK to come up with an alternative text since February, but it could be seen as mood music designed to keep Theresa May on the dancefloor and in power.

The EU offer is to do checks away from the border with the support of technology, something the former Brexit secretary, David Davis, has said is a “softening” of the EU position.

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Barnier has said the checks “could take place in different places, on board vessels, in ports outside Ireland, they could be done using technological means”.

The EU’s concern is that the single market has to be protected and it can’t allow sub-standard goods to get into Ireland (and on to elsewhere in the EU) via a Britain-Northern Ireland route. It has used the example of Asian shrimps laced with antibiotics that cause blindness banned by the EU getting into Ireland via Liverpool-Belfast.

The new idea is to try to persuade the UK that most of the goods going into Northern Ireland go via Dublin, so checks for EU standards in British ports could form part of a solution.

What is the UK’s position?

Downing Street has said it will not consider EU checks by EU staff or British staff in British ports.

May has not provided any alternative to the EU’s legal text but argues that the white paper and the Chequers plan amount to a de facto backstop.

If Britain had a “common rulebook” with the EU matching standards of agrifood and goods then regulatory checks would not be needed. Customs declarations and VAT checks could be done electronically.

What is Ireland’s position?

Ireland’s position is being fully prosecuted by Barnier with the support of the other 26 member states. Barnier has offered a new way of keeping the border open but he has not offered to scrap the backstop.

Ireland argues a backstop is necessary not just to ensure frictionless trade but to protect a fragile peace. It argues that the “normalisation” of life on the border is a byproduct of the cross-border cooperation in trade, schools, healthcare and agriculture that has flourished since the Good Friday agreement.

What is the EU’s position on this?

Barnier has said the backstop has to be “all weather” not just a no-deal scenario but to preserve the status quo on the island in the unlikely, but possible, event of a future hostile government in Britain.