Britain created the Brexit crisis — they must take the initiative
The preservation of peace on our island is the most vital Brexit priority, writes Tanaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney
THE Good Friday Agreement is a landmark achievement of Ireland, the UK and the people and political parties of the North. It is an international treaty struck between neighbours and 21 years of peace on our island has flowed from it. That allowed us to move on from the 30 years of death, fear and indescribable pain that had gone before.
Peace, and the fragility of it in Northern Ireland, was most certainly forgotten during the Brexit referendum campaign. I’m sorry to say there were times it seemed sadly forgotten in the House of Commons last week.
I have said it many times: Brexit is a lose, lose, lose situation. The European Union stands to lose a valued member state which designed some of its very best features. Ireland stands to lose our closest neighbour from the group. Britain stands to lose the most. Many in the UK will fundamentally disagree with me on that last point. But there is not much by way of credible economic data or studies that say Britain will be better off after Brexit. Although we deeply regret the outcome of the UK’s referendum on EU membership, we must respect it.
For Ireland, peace on our island is most important of all. We saw from very far out that Brexit will damage us economically, but more importantly, it had the potential to threaten peace too. That is why we made maintaining an open border and protection of the Good Friday Agreement our overarching objectives. That led to our partner in the peace process, the UK, giving a firm commitment in December 2017 that it would ensure its pursuit of Brexit would not cause a hard border on the island of Ireland under any circumstances.
The best people in the EU and UK worked remarkably hard last year to reach a Withdrawal Agreement negotiated around UK red lines and that allowed for a British demand for a UK-wide backstop on customs. If used, that backstop will only be temporary and we will work hard to replace it with a better deal. It is a safety net for peace, no more, no less. The UK won a further concession by the EU agreeing to a review clause.
No matter what, we expect Prime Minister May to live up to her commitments on the Border from December 2017 and we expect the Prime Minister will always fulfil Britain’s role as a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement.
If the UK leaves the EU on March 29 with no deal, everyone will suffer more then they need to and Northern Ireland will stand to suffer the most. In those circumstances, the UK will still need to live up to its obligations and responsibilities under the Good Friday Agreement. In my view, a solution based on regulatory alignment will remain the best and most sensible option. One thing is certain: the technology to maintain the open border we have today does not exist. Where technology is currently used around the world, it is generally to assist or facilitate border infrastructure and controls, not to replace them.
It is a tragedy that Northern Ireland’s voice has been drowned out during the Brexit negotiations. This is in no small part because the Executive at Stormont lies dormant. While the DUP has an important voice, it does not speak for the majority in Northern Ireland who voted against Brexit and who support the Withdrawal Agreement in its entirety, including the backstop. Wider British society needs to listen to Northern Ireland. Crosscommunity businesses, farmers, manufacturers and civic groups all support the backstop, as do a majority of elected representatives to the Northern Ireland Assembly.
They know that the backstop is not a constitutional threat to the UK or Northern Ireland’s place within it.
The only silver lining last week was the Commons vote to reject leaving the EU without a deal. That now needs to be put into action by UK politicians. The Withdrawal Agreement will not be re-opened and the backstop will not be changed, the EU could not be clearer on that.
Brexit will not be advanced by a UK government-backed amendment which sees it go back on its word. That is no way to do business. I made this very clear to the British Foreign Secretary when I met him in Romania on Friday.
We need instead to see a further mapping out of the future relationship Britain wants with the EU. The offer is there from the EU to revise the Political Declaration to make it more ambitious, if the UK so wishes.
The initiative needs to come from the source of the problem, London. If more time is needed for this, Britain is free to ask the EU.