‘More delays and I’ll stop the Brexit talks’

Coveney calls on UK for progress on border issue

SIMON Coveney has said he will delay or stop Brexit negotiations if ‘significant progress’ on the border isn’t made by June, the Irish Daily Mail has learned.

At a conference at Iveagh House yesterday, the Tánaiste addressed the June deadline that he himself has laid down for progress on avoiding a hard border with the North.

The Foreign Affairs Minister told attendees that he would take ‘definitive action’ if the UK does not make substantial progress by June, including ‘delaying or putting a stop’ to the talks if the deadline is not met, according to sources present at the event.

But Fianna Fáil has warned that a delay to negotiations could push the UK closer to a dreaded no-deal Brexit.

With Brexit set to take place in March 2019, a withdrawal deal Demands: Simon Coveney has to be agreed by October if it is to be implemented on time.

Any decision to change the negotiations timeline would have to be taken by the EU27, in which Ireland is included.

Yesterday European Council President Donald Tusk issued a similar threat at the EU Parliament in Strasbourg, while deadlocked British and EU negotiators met in Brussels for the latest round of talks. Mr Tusk did not hold back on his disdain for the EU-UK divorce, saying: ‘Brexit is, by nature and by definition, about weakening and worsening trade and everything else.’

Yesterday, Fianna Fáil’s Brexit spokeswoman Lisa Chambers said that while she understood the need for deadlines, stopping the transition period risks pushing the UK towards a no-deal Brexit. She told the Irish Daily Mail: ‘I understand the reason- ing... You have to pick a point at which there has to be a solution to this issue. The difficulty is that if we don’t have a withdrawal agreement, we don’t have a transition period. Without a transition period we are looking at a hard Brexit.’

Ms Chambers said she had pressed the Tánaiste on what he had meant by ‘significant progress’ but did not receive a response. She said the Tánaiste had made a ‘significant statement’ at the meeting, but that ‘we still need to see the detail of that and what that actually transpires to be’.

A spokesman for Mr Coveney said: ‘The Tánaiste has clearly said the Government needs to see meaningful and significant progress in June. These comments by European Council President Donald Tusk today emphasising the importance of June shows the EU27 is completely united in this approach.’

Speaking in the European Parliament, Fine Gael MEP Mairéad McGuinness urged any British politicians underestimating the border challenge to visit the border area.

‘Tragically, in the referendum you forget about Northern Ireland, but Europe has not forgotten,’ she added.

The leader of the European People’s Party Manfred Weber said Ireland would be supported during the Brexit talks.

‘We are all Irish in this regard and we stand clearly behind our Irish friends,’ he said.

‘We are all Irish in this regard’