Dublin: Beware Brussels saboteurs
IRELAND’S EU commissioner last night threatened that Brussels could sabotage Brexit by refusing to allow any transitional period when Britain leaves.
Brexit Secretary David Davis will today set out a plan for the country to temporarily maintain customs arrangements after March 2019 as it prepares to put in place a new regime.
But Phil Hogan said this will be possible only if the EU believes it will be in its interest. He told the Financial Times that ministers ‘still don’t realise that the other 27 [member states] have to agree to this transition period of two or three years or whatever
they’re going to be seeking. We have to see will it be fruitful.’
The intervention from Mr Hogan, the EU commissioner for agriculture, will raise fears that Brussels could pursue an antagonistic strategy that deliberately disrupts British trade.
Britain has made clear it will leave the EU’s customs union so it can strike its own global trade deals. But Mr Hogan said he had told the CBI to ask businesses to lobby the Government to cancel this plan. He added that he was ‘concerned’ about the Irish border issue after Brexit.