UK Jul 25, 2019 | British prime minister Boris Johnson says that the Northern Ireland backstop needs to be abolished if there is to be a Brexit agreement between the UK and the EU. Video: UK Parliament TV

○ First PMQ: Johnson vows to get 'rid' of Irish backstop | The Irish Times |

France reiterates EU rejection of Johnson's Brexit policy | France24 |

France on Friday reiterated the EU's rejection of an aggressive push by Boris Johnson to rewrite the Brexit agreement. But Paris is ready to "work with" the new British prime minister, said a senior French official.

France wants to "get past the stage" of negotiating the Brexit agreement and would like to "calmly" negotiate Britain's future relationship with the EU, said France's state minister for European affairs Amelie de Montchalin.

La France ne veut pas un #Brexit sans accord. Mais nous sommes bien conscients qu'un no-deal est possible. Nous nous y sommes préparés. @FinancialTimes cc @MichelBarnier (_link)

— Amélie de Montchalin (@AdeMontchalin) July 25, 2019

EU rejects Johnson's 'unacceptable' positions

Macron's invitation came shortly the EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier warned the bloc's member states that Johnson was trying to divide them by amping up the threat of a damaging "no-deal" divorce.

In an email to member states seen by AFP, Barnier warned that Johnson's "rather combative" demand -- delivered in a House of Commons speech Thursday -- that Brussels "rethink" its opposition to re-opening the current deal was "unacceptable".  

Michel Barnier in note to 27 EU leaders: "We will not engage in talks with the British government over binning the backstop."

France warns Boris Johnson not to play games with Iris border | The Guardian |

Amélie de Montchalin, France's minister for European affairs, said both sides should avoid "games, gestures and provocations" with just three months to go before the UK is due to leave the EU.

De Montchalin said the French president, Emmanuel Macron, would hold talks with Johnson in France in the coming weeks but that the deal on the table would not be altered.

"What I would like to do in the coming weeks is that we can go through this stage and negotiate, calmly, calmly, (...) how we work afterwards. We want to work with [Boris Johnson] and most of all, we need it, it's a partner who will remain a partner after Brexit, it's a country that will remain very close to us...

"What is still to negotiate is the future relationship. We have to create a working relationship and not get into games, gestures and provocations."

Irish deputy PM Simon Coveney says Boris Johnson putting UK on 'collision course with EU' | The Guardian |

This is what Simon Coveney, the Irish deputy prime minister, said this morning about how Boris Johnson has put the UK "on a collision course" with the EU over Brexit. (See 11.56am.) Coveney said:

The statements of the British prime minister yesterday in the House of Commons were very unhelpful to this process.

He seems to have made a deliberate decision to set Britain on a collision course with the European Union and with Ireland in relation to the Brexit negotiations, and I think only he can answer the question as to why he is doing that.

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Ireland's @simoncoveney says PM @BorisJohnson's statements yesterday were "very unhelpful" and he seems to have made a deliberate decision to have set Britain on a collision course with Ireland & the EU.@BBCNewsNI | @AdamFleming | #Brexit pic.twitter.com/Lv79yFq2Lc

— Darran Marshall (@DarranMarshall) July 26, 2019

○ Brexit deadlock as No 10 insists EU must scrap backstop before talks