Leo: EU is ‘not an impartial broker’
Bloc looks after its own interests, he tells the DUP
LEO Varadkar has told the DUP the European Commission is not an ‘honest broker’ after the party complained it has ignored Unionist views on Brexit.
Arlene Foster, the DUP’s leader, met chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier on Thursday, asking him to understand concerns on the backstop.
After the meeting, Mrs Foster warned that without changes to the backstop – which aims to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland – the UK and the EU would move ‘inexorably towards a no-deal scenario’.
Yesterday, the Taoiseach said the DUP seemed to be under the mistaken impression the European Commission, the EU’s executive wing, should act as an impartial mediator in Brexit talks.
Mr Varadkar said: ‘I saw some of the reports about the meeting that Arlene Foster and some others had with the European Commission taskforce.
‘Hearing the commentary there I kind of got the sense that some people in the DUP or maybe some people on the right of the British Conservative party think that the European Commission is supposed to be some sort of honest broker. It’s not. The European Commission is there to look after the interests of the European Union.
‘And we, as the European Union, have decided that part of that interest is making sure that a hard border never emerges on the island of Ireland and the rights of citizens in Northern Ireland are protected.’
He added: ‘I’m absolutely convinced that the majority of people in Northern Ireland agree with that position and agree with the backstop.’
The DUP is concerned that the backstop raises a constitutional question about Northern Ireland’s place in the UK by treating it differently from the rest of the UK.
It has insisted there can be no customs barriers in the Irish Sea, between the North and Britain, which would be necessary to avoid a border between Ireland north and south.
The DUP, which campaigned for Brexit, also rejected an offer to give Northern Ireland ‘special status’ within the customs union, allowing unfettered trade with both the UK and the EU.
It comes as senior members of the DUP held talks with Brexiteer Boris Johnson as pressure grows for Theresa May to quit as British prime minister.
Mrs Foster and her deputy Nigel Dodds met Mr Johnson and his campaign team for 40 minutes in Westminster on Wednesday.
The DUP has already warned Mrs May its confidence and supply arrangement, which props up her government, is due for renewal at the parliamentary session’s end scheduled for June.
The meeting between Mr Johnson and the DUP was the latest such encounter between the party and candidates looking to succeed Mrs May.
Mrs Foster declined to say if she had confidence in Mrs May this week when probed on the issue after a meeting in Brussels with Mr Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator.
‘The confidence and supply agreement we signed is with the Conservative Party and whoever the leader of that party is we will work with,’ she said.
‘Most in the North agree to backstop’