Little detail on a deal that will affect us all

LITTLE more than a week ago, a report revealed that a no-deal Brexit would end up costing the remaining EU nations more than €30billion a year. As this newspaper pointed out, it didn’t require the services of a rocket scientist to work out which member state would be worst affected.

Aside from anything else, the figures speak for themselves. The two-way trade in goods and services between Ireland and the UK are worth well over €1billion for every week of the year.

Now it appears from talks between Michel Barnier and David Davis, the two politicians principally responsible for negotiating the terms of Brexit, that there is some sign of progress. It seems that there is now legal backing for a so-called ‘backstop’ arrangement in the event of a deal not being agreed. This would mean Britain maintaining regulatory alignment with the EU in a move that would involve a seamless border between the Republic and the North.

By any reckoning, this sounds like a development that deserves to be welcomed. But the problem is that there is no detail on how exactly it will work.

What we heard over the weekend is broadly similar to what emerged last December. So it is difficult to escape the conclusion that an issue was kicked down the road back then is, in effect, being kicked down the road again.

This newspaper has repeatedly pointed out that resolving the situation will not be simple. The bottom line is that there are huge complications at the prospect of having a seamless border between a country that is in the EU and one that isn’t. And it is about time the powers-that-be took that on board.