Brexit Tories not interested in Border–just cost of EU divorce
WHILE the issue of the Border is of paramount importance to Ireland, it was largely absent from any discussion at last week’s British Tory Party conference – save for a poorly attended address by Northern Ireland Secretary of State James Brokenshire.
One UK government source told how, on the issue of the Border, “I didn’t hear it once”.
“It reflects the general level of ignorance from the delegates as to how much they care about the Irish question. If it was such a major issue [UK Prime Minister Theresa May] would have agreed for the UK to stay in the customs union,” they added.
According to some British sources, there is a feeling the Border question could be solved with help from the Irish government. “Most members of the Tory Party haven’t got their head around the Irish issue. The only one they care about is the divorce bill because most of the fundamentalists for Brexit don’t think they should pay anything.”
This week’s talks between the EU and the UK got off to an unconvincing start when questions first arose as to why Brexit Secretary David Davis wasn’t in Brussels for the beginning of the final module of EU-UK negotiations ahead of next week’s formal summit of EU leaders in Brussels.
It is understood the topic for discussion yesterday was one of a highly technical nature regarding the methodology for the financial settlement, “and I don’t think David Davis is a technician if you catch my drift,” a UK government source told the Irish Independent.
Meanwhile, there’s still quite a bit of disparity regarding progress on negotiations between the two sides. So much so that last week the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly on a motion requesting the European Council not to go ahead with further talks on the basis that “not sufficient progress” has been made so far.
Two Conservative MEPs were suspended from the party for voting with the resolution, along with almost all others including Sinn Féin. Julie Girling, South West MEP, and Richard Ashworth, South East MEP, lost the whip and were told they behaved “totally irresponsibly” by Tory Party HQ.
Yesterday afternoon, Mrs May (left) told the House of Commons of the EU negotiators that “the ball is in their court”. It follows her recent landmark speech in Florence where she moved slightly on supporting EU citizens who’ve settled in the UK and assured her EU partners that member states won’t have to pay any extra into the EU budget as a result of Britain’s vote to leave.
An EU spokesperson rejected both the premise and the use of the analogy itself. “This is not exactly a ballgame,” said Margaritis Schinas yesterday afternoon. “There has been, so far, no solution found in step one which is the divorce proceedings, so the ball is firmly in the UK court, for the rest to happen,” he added.
The October summit is the deadline for which “significant progress” has to be made on the three key areas around the UK’s departure from the EU before a decision can be made by the bloc to move on to trade talks.
These areas involve an agreement on the financial settlement in which the UK settles its budgetary and other commitments. The other areas relate to the guaranteeing of rights of the three million EU citizens in the UK after Brexit, and managing the Border.
Meanwhile, the Revenue Commissioners says a recently quoted report into the major impact of Brexit on Ireland was written back in 2016 and did not take into account the “many developments and papers written since then”.
However, given the fact there has yet to be agreement on key areas regarding Brexit, many of the concerns documented within the report are still relevant.