This sounds weird, and not as I'd expect from the Economist. The EU does something now wrt. Ireland, and that shows that it would have been flexible enough to

This sounds weird, and not as I'd expect from the Economist. The EU does something now wrt. Ireland, and that shows that it would have been flexible enough to do various other things years ago? I can see that this deal would have been possible years ago (it preserves the CJEU's jurisdiction etc), but hardly that the EU would ever be able to agree to the things the UK asked for back then.