OREANDA-NEWS. Backstop, the regime for Northern Ireland to be part of the EU Customs Union and the single European market after the Brexit transition period, is necessary in the deal to leave Britain from the European Union. This was reported on Tuesday by the American News Agency, citing a document prepared by EU countries.

"Backstop is a necessary, legally valid decision in the Agreement on the conditions for UK exit from the EU to prevent the restoration of a tight border on the island of Ireland," the agency quoted the document. EU countries also expressed disappointment that the government of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to replace "backstop" with "promise to find a solution", while not providing "concrete proposals" to solve this problem.

Earlier on Tuesday, European Council President Donald Tusk accused Johnson of intending to create a border between Ireland and Northern Ireland after the United Kingdom left the EU, as the British side, demanding that the backstop be excluded from the agreement, didn't offer any alternative to this mechanism.

The UK was due to leave the EU on March 29, 2019, that is, two years after the written notification of leaving the community. However, members of the House of Commons of the British Parliament three times rejected the draft agreement on the conditions of Brexit, reached between Brussels and the government of Prime Minister Theresa May. As a result, the EU agreed to postpone Brexit, first to April-May, then to October 31, and May was forced to resign, failing to break the deadlock. After her departure, Johnson took the chair of the British Prime Minister, who promised to carry out Brexit without a deal if Brussels doesn't agree with London’s main demand and doesn't exclude the back-stop provision from it.