Originally Posted by
Kallisto
It is in no way the EU's fault. The EU has 4 founding pillars. They are never going to be taken away because to take away just one for anyone basically ends the EU. It's like telling the US to basically destroy their consitution for a breakaway state. They will not do it as it would basically destroy the US. The EU side of the situation was that this was a legal process and allow the UK to come up with something that would be acceptable to the EU (doesn't break the 4 pillars) and the UK (Also known as May's suicidal red lines).
Things like the backstop came from whitehall not brussels, strasbourg, berlin, paris, whatever. It was something May brought up. Everything within the agreement basically came from the UK side of things and the EU basically made sure it doesn't break the 4 pillars. That was it. Since from their pov this is a legal process not a negotiation.
The negotiation part comes next, regardless if there's a deal or not. Because everyone needs to know the state of where each country/region is before they begin true negotiations.