Border ‘is not just an Irish issue’, says EU chief

IRELAND’S border quandary is ‘not an Irish Issue – it is a European issue’, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told the European Parliament yesterday.

However, this show of unity with Ireland was met with anger from pro-Brexit British MEPs, with Scottish Ukip MEP David Coburn repeatedly shouting that the Irish border is ‘a British issue’.

Mr Juncker urged British Prime Minister Theresa May to turn her ‘broad suggestions’ on the future relationship between the UK and the EU into workable solutions.

‘Give us some more clarity on how the UK sees its future relationship with the European Union,’ Mr Juncker said, addressing Britain. ‘As my good friend John Bruton wrote in a recent article, “The most valuable test that Mrs May wishes to apply to a Brexit agreement is that it should be one that would endure and not require constant renegotiation.”’

Mr Juncker added: ‘With one year to go it is time to translate speeches into treaties, to turn commitments into agreements, broad wishes on a future relationship into specific, workable solutions.’

Failure to do so quickly, he said, would result in negotiations that will drag on for years.

Two weeks ago, Mrs May appealed for help from the EU in resolving the border question, saying, ‘We can’t do it on our own. It is for all of us to work together’.

In the December Joint Report, three proposals for avoiding a hard border were set out. They were: a comprehensive trade deal, a bespoke solution based on technology or – if the first two options cannot be achieved – full regulatory alignment between the UK and Ireland, and by extension the EU.

The UK has so far failed to put forward proposals on the first two options.

A Downing Street spokesman told the Irish Daily Mail that they share Mr Juncker’s goals, and referred to Mrs May’s speech when she said: ‘The new agreement we reach with the EU must endure.’