2 weeks for UK to produce proposals: Ireland

Joint UK, EU status for N. Ireland eyed

DUBLIN, June 2, (RTRS): Britain must submit written proposals on how it plans to keep a frictionless border on the island of Ireland after Brexit in the next two weeks or face an uncertain summer of talks, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney was quoted as saying on Saturday.

The border between Britishruled Northern Ireland and the rest of Ireland will be Britain’s only land frontier with the EU after it leaves the bloc. While both sides say they are committed to keeping the border open, finding a practical solution is still proving elusive.

The EU and Dublin insist Britain’s withdrawal treaty must lock in a backstop arrangement guaranteeing Northern Ireland will abide by EU regulations in case a future trade pact does not remove the need for border controls. London has signed up to this but disagrees with the EU’s means of achieving it.

“In the next two weeks, we need to see written proposals. It needs to happen two weeks from the summit,” Coveney told the Irish Times newspapewr, referring to a June summit of EU leaders that is supposed to mark significant progress on the issue.

“If there is no progress on the backstop, we are in for an uncertain summer. At this point we need written proposals on the Irish backstop consistent with what was agreed. We await written proposals from the British side.”

The United Kingdom could propose giving Northern Ireland joint UK and European Union status so it can trade freely with both, in an attempt to break the deadlock in Brexit negotiations, a government official said.

The idea would be to create a 10-mile (16-km)-wide trade buffer zone along the border for local traders such as dairy farmers after the UK leaves the bloc, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The plan is one of several being discussed and may not be proposed to the EU, the official said.

Inspiration for the dual-regulatory system has been taken from Liechtenstein, which is able to operate both the Swiss and the EU-linked European Economic Area regimes at the same time.

But a lawmaker from the Northern Irish party that supports Britain’s minority government dismissed the idea as at best contradictory and said it had not been raised with the party.

“These convoluted arrangements only arise because of the government’s failure to make it clear to the EU that regardless of EU negotiators’ attempts to keep us in the Customs Union and the Single Market, we are leaving,” Democratic Unionist Party MP Sammy Wilson said in a statement.