Spain has our back on Brexit, says Taoiseach
SPAIN is fully behind Ireland in the ongoing Brexit negotiations, Leo Varadkar said as he hailed a meeting with newly elected prime minister Pedro Sanchez yesterday as ‘one of the best and one of the warmest’ of his time as Taoiseach so far.
Mr Varadkar marked the first anniversary of his election as Taoiseach yesterday in the Moncloa Palace in Madrid, where he had a working lunch with Mr Sanchez, who only took over the role on June 2.
Afterwards, the Taoiseach commented that the UK failing to provide a solution on how to avoid a hard border on this island does not make the issue any ‘easier’.
Mr Varadkar said that if there is ‘stalling, if there is prevarication coming from London, coming from the UK government, it’s probably more to do with the internal debate that’s happening within the British cabinet, which we are all very much aware of’.
He continued: ‘Putting this off doesn’t make it any easier for the United Kingdom.
‘The European Union is fully united, 27 member states standing together in a common position, led very ably by Michel Barnier and the EU taskforce. Putting off hard decisions doesn’t make it any easier for the UK.
‘And of course, it’s not the case where there is going to be some sort of compromise cobbled together late at night at the EU Council meeting in October.’
He said that this meeting ‘is not a negotiating meeting, the UK will not be there so any agreement will have to be concluded between the UK on the one hand and the EU taskforce on the other’.
‘And I don’t see any benefit for the United Kingdom in putting things off,’ Mr Vardkar added.
The Taoiseach was the first EU leader to visit Mr Sanchez since the new Spanish leader ousted conservative Mariano Rajoy to become prime minister earlier this month.
Speaking yesterday about the engagement itself, Mr Varadkar said: ‘I think it’s a meeting that went very well.
‘Ireland have a long-standing friendship with Spain which is both historic and political, and I think we are going to have a very good relationship with this new government and this new prime minister and I am looking forward to working with them in the period ahead.
‘We will meet again obviously in Brussels in two weeks’ time and I have also invited him to visit Ireland whenever the opportunity arises.’
However, the official visit, which saw the two leaders enjoy a working lunch in the Moncloa Palace yesterday afternoon, may have been marginally overshadowed in Spain as Mr Sanchez dealt with the fallout from a controversy involving his culture and sports minister Maxim Huerta – who resigned amid a tax fraud scandal on Wednesday.
Mr Sanchez won global acclaim last week when he unveiled his new cabinet, featuring a twothirds majority of female ministers – the world’s most female-dominated Cabinet.
This week, he also announced that Spain was set to take in a ship carrying 629 rescued migrants which had been refused from docking in Italian ports.
Mr Varadkar was accompanied on the trip by EU Affairs Minister Helen McEntee.
‘One of the best meetings I’ve had’