Brexit deal still ‘far of f ’ despite progress by May, says Coveney
‘Red lines’ softened but Tánaiste wants to see details
THE British cabinet agreement at Chequers represents ‘a softening of British red lines’ – but it would be a mistake to believe that a Brexit deal is close, Simon Coveney has said.
UK ministers agreed to unite behind Prime Minister Theresa May’s proposal to the EU to create a ‘UK-EU free trade area’ for goods with a common rulebook for industrial goods and agricultural products.
She reaffirmed the UK’s commitment to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the South. She also proposed ending the automatic free movement of people into the UK from the EU but included a ‘mobility framework’ allowing easy movement for work or study between the UK and EU.
But Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney dashed hopes that a deal could be reached soon. He said yesterday: ‘We are seeing a softening of British red lines now, and we have to await to see the detail of that when they publish their White Paper. But I don’t think anybody should be fooled into thinking we are any closer to finalising our negotiation. We are not. It is far from a done deal at this stage.’
And the Taoiseach said last night at Dublin Castle as he met the Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, that there are some aspects to the British deal on Brexit that will be acceptable and others unacceptable.
‘We are going to need to see the White Paper,’ Leo Varadkar said, adding that Mrs May had indicated to him that it would be published on Thursday or Friday and would be 100 pages long and more.
But he said he welcomed the unified position of the British Cabinet as a step in the right direction. ‘This is not a solution but it is an important input to the negotiations,’ Mr Varadkar said.
Chancellor Kurz said the EU 27 would now discuss and debate and then arrive at a common position.
He remarked: ‘There will be differences between countries, but we will then arrive at a common stance for the Barnier task force.’
Mr Varadkar was asked about the UK’s plan to keep services outside an EU-UK free trade deal and said membership of the Single Market involved the four freedoms – of goods, labour, services and capital. ‘We’ve said those are indivisible,’ he said. ‘The devil is going to be in the detail.’
He added that a backstop agreement would have to be incorporated in any final withdrawal agreement, and he expected this would happen.
The EU would need some convincing that if they signed up to British proposals, they were signing up to certainty – especially in a situation where there would be a common rulebook, especially with parliament in the UK reserving the right to make changes as matters evolved.
Belgian Green MEP Philippe Lambert insisted that Mrs May’s plan would not get approval in Europe. ‘The will of the British government is to pick apart the Single Market. But that cannot be done. It means you cannot single out goods or services, you have to swallow it all, or no part of it.’
As to a concluding agreement for British withdrawal, ‘what is needed is the Norway option, which is remaining in the Customs Union and Single Market,’ he said. Norway makes large annual payments for the latter privilege.
On warnings that Ireland is
‘The devil will be in the detail’ ‘You have to swallow it all’
underprepared, Mr Coveney insisted: ‘We are planing to ensure that Ireland will be ready, if needs be, for customs checks on an East West basis should that happen in the absence of a negotiation.
‘Fortunately the UK’s repositioning makes that far less likely, but we will have the contingency planning in place for all eventualities.’