LEO: THERE WILL BE NO HARD BORDER..
LEO Varadkar has insisted he is confident there will be no hard border despite being warned the issue remains a “riddle to be solved”.
The Taoiseach said it is “written in black and white” in last week’s agreement between the EU and UK that this type of boundary will be avoided.
Responding to claims from Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern that “primary school students can see there is a riddle to be solved” Mr Varadkar said he remains “confident” there will be “no physical infrastructure and no associated checks or controls”.
He added: “If all else falls we have a backstop arrangement that allows us to avoid a hard border.
“It is our intention now to negotiate the withdrawal agreement. We want that stitched into the withdrawal agreement.” Mr Varadkar was speaking in Brussels shortly after the EU agreed to move Brexit talks on to trade and a transition pact and admitted tough negotiations still lie ahead.
When asked if European Union unity could come under pressure in the next phase of talks, he said: “Ireland is very grateful for the level of solidarity shown by member states.”
Mr Varadkar added it is now his job to “as much as possible try to retain the status quo that exists” between Ireland and the UK.
He said: “I never thought Brexit was a good idea, I still don’t, but I accept it.
“If the UK were to ask to stay in the single market I for one would certainly give very warm welcome to that. But as things stand they’ve said it is not their position and we respect that.”
However the Fine Gael leader warned: “Fundamentally, you can’t have unfettered free trade unless you agree some sort of common set of rules. So the idea you can have free trade on one hand and then total control over your own rules and regulations doesn’t work.”
The Taoiseach added two years is the consensus for a transition period and he does not intend to push for longer.
He said: “We couldn’t have a situation where a member state could
BRUSSELS YESTERDAY
stay in a European limbo of sorts. That wouldn’t work for the state that wants to leave or the EU either.”
Earlier the Taoiseach warned “a lot of thinking” remains over the post-brexit relationship between the UK and EU. He said that opinions on what future relations should look like are “diverse” and that not everyone agrees with Ireland’s desire for little change. Mr Varadkar said he and British PM Theresa May had a brief chat on Thursday night about trade talks and the collapse of Stormont. “We agreed we would talk in the New Year, both about another attempt to get the Northern Ireland Executive up and running and Phase 2 talks.” THERESA May suffered a two-pronged attack as Brussels stalled on Brexit trade talks and banned her from signing deals with other countries until 2021.
The Britsih PM finally got the green light to begin negotiations over a trade deal between the UK and the EU – but was bluntly told they could not start until March.
And she was dealt a second blow when the leaders of the other 27 EU countries slipped out a ban on the UK signing accords with the US, China and Japan until the end of the transition period in March 2021.
Mrs May desperately tried to hail yesterday as an “important step” on the road to Brexit.
But Germany’s Angela Merkel warned it would get “tougher” and Austrian PM Christian Kern predicted a “rocky road” ahead.
We agreed to talk next year about getting Stormont up and running LEO VARADKAR