‘Baby steps’ on Border in a Brexit fudge by UK
THE battle to prevent a hard Border after Brexit moved a step forward after the British government signalled a willingness to keep one foot inside and one outside the EU.
Amid chaotic scenes in London, Prime Minister Theresa May accepted the need for a temporary customs arrangement – while her government struggles to come up with a permanent solution for the Irish Border.
The UK will keep one foot inside the EU and one foot outside for the foreseeable future.
This prompted one senior Irish Government source to describe the plan as ‘Lanigan’s Ball’, with the UK dancing to the EU’s tune.
But forced to act to prevent her Brexit Secretary David Davis from quitting, Mrs May said she “expects” a new system to be in place by December 2021.
In a letter to Tory MPs, the prime minister described the proposal as “unpalatable but at worst temporary”. And although it lacks any solid suggestions for the Border, Irish officials see the move as a “baby step” and believe the UK is at last engaging constructively on the issue.
However, sources also cautioned the October deadline for agreeing the terms of the UK’s EU withdrawal is in danger of slipping if further progress is not made soon. Both Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier questioned whether the UK proposals would be enough.
THE battle to prevent a hard Border on the island of Ireland moved a step forward after the British government signalled a willingness to keep one foot inside the EU.
British Prime Minister Theresa May accepted the need for a temporary customs arrangement – while her government struggles to come up with a permanent solution for the Irish Border.
In a bid to prevent her Brexit secretary David Davis from quitting, Mrs May said she “expects” a new system to be in by December 2021.
However, this time limit was dismissed by sources in Dublin, who said the UK would now have to keep its trade rules closely aligned to the EU “unless and until” a better deal was negotiated.
Government sources described the arrangement as the UK keeping one foot inside the EU and one foot outside for the foreseeable future.
“It’s Lanigan’s Ball with the UK dancing to the EU’s tune,” a senior Government source said.
In a letter to Tory MPs last night, Mrs May described the proposal as “unpalatable but at worst temporary” and “in no way the government’s intended or desired” result.
She was sure to stress that the UK government did not expect it to be implemented, as it intended to have a permanent customs arrangement in place by the end of 2020. But she said it was right to have a fallback option ready in case the process was delayed “for technical reasons”.
The document represents the UK’s counter to an EU proposal to keep Northern Ireland alone in the customs union after Brexit, which was rejected outright by Mrs May because it would draw a border in the Irish Sea.
And although it lacks any solid suggestions for how to operate a frictionless border, Irish officials see the announcement as a “baby step”.
They believe the UK is for the first time engaging constructively on the Irish question.
However, Brexit sources also cautioned that the October deadline for agreeing the terms of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU was in danger of “slipping” if further progress was not made in the next two weeks.
Both Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier questioned whether the UK proposals would do enough to be defined as “an all-weather backstop”.
Mr Varadkar said the period during which the UK remains inside the customs union cannot be “time limited by a date”.
“It has to be applicable until such a time, if and when, there is a new relationship with the UK that makes the Border question moot,” he said.
It will be up to Mr Barnier to work through the detail of the new UK proposals ahead of a meeting of European leaders at the end of the month.
Even if the temporary customs partnership is triggered, then Britain will seek the right to negotiate, sign and ratify trade deals with other parts of world.
However, the EU is unlikely to permit the UK to actually activate any of these deals until they find a way of maintaining a fully open Border on the island of Ireland.
A source said: “Everybody will be very happy if they can do that by 2021 but there won’t be an accidental Irish Border in the meantime.
“Michel Barnier has made it very clear that there can be no cherry-picking of the best bits of the EU as they leave.
“If there’s no new arrangement by 2021, they can’t suddenly guillotine the Irish protocol,” they added.