Deal hamstrung by Irish border issue
Only two days ahead of a summit once seen as the moment when Britain and the European Union would have to reach a Brexit deal, both sides are still refusing to blink over the question of the Irish border.
A flurry of diplomatic meetings over the weekend had raised hopes for an agreement on Britain’s divorce from the bloc. But they were disappointed by the issue that has dogged the talks for months how to ensure that no hard border is created between the EU’s Ireland and Britain’s Northern Ireland once Brexit happens on March 29.
The EU has proposed a “backstop” solution that would keep Northern Ireland in a customs union to avoid a hard border between it and Ireland. But British Prime Minister Theresa May says that would create “a border in the Irish Sea” and she won’t accept it.
Britain is proposing instead
to keep all of the U.K. in a customs union with the bloc — but only temporarily.
“I need to be able to look the British people in the eye and say this ‘backstop’ is a temporary solution,” May told lawmakers in the House of
Commons on Monday.
Insisting that a Brexit divorce deal was “achievable,” May said the border dispute should not “derail the prospects of a good deal and leave us with the no-deal outcome that no one wants.”