Ireland’s push for border deal threatens to hit Brexit talks

IRELAND is pushing for a settled “legal text” over the border question as early as next month in a move that threatens once again to derail the Brexit negotiations, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.

Simon Coveney, Ireland’s foreign minister, is understood to have made Dublin’s uncompromising position clear to British ministers, putting further pressure on Theresa May to make hard decisions on the future relationship between Ireland and the United Kingdom.

It comes as leaked European Commission documents show that Brussels intends to punish Britain if it refuses to submit to EU law during the Brexit transition period by stripping British businesses of their access to the single market.

The Irish border will be one of the items on the agenda when the Prime Minister’s inner Brexit war cabinet convenes this morning for the first of two meetings this week to try to agree the Government’s position over Britain’s future relationship with Europe.

The pressure from Ireland threatens to unravel the delicate diplomatic text over the Irish border question that was orchestrated in December following three days of intense talks between London, Dublin and Brussels.

In that agreement, the UK maintained that it would keep Northern Ireland in “full alignment” with Europe’s single market – but only as a last resort, if other solutions to the problem could not be found.

British negotiators argue that the combination of Northern Ireland’s devolved decision-making processes and some technical customs arrangements could be enough to make good on their commitment to avoid a “hard border”.

Irish officials did not completely close the door to those solutions when contacted by The Telegraph, but they made clear that Ireland wants the “full alignment” option to be enshrined in a detailed legal agreement as its fallback option.

“Like the UK, we have consistently said that it is our preference to resolve these issues through the wider future relationship agreement between the EU and the UK,” said a senior Irish government official.

“However, in case this is not possible, we must at the same time ensure legal certainty in the withdrawal agreement that reflects the commitments made by the UK in phase one of the

negotiations.” The Irish demand for certainty suggests that British hopes that the border question could be resolved as part of a broader discussion about European trade and customs is misplaced.

Failure to reach an accommodation also risks delaying a deal on a transition agreement in March if Ireland can convince other EU states to use the transition deal as leverage to force Britain to clarify its positions.

Leaked European Commission documents translating the EU’S hardline stance on the transition period into legal language were obtained by The Telegraph yesterday.

They exposed EU fears that Britain would break European laws during the transition period, which would effectively freeze the UK’S membership of the single market and customs union for about two years after Brexit.

EU countries that break the bloc’s law can be taken to the European Court of Justice, but such cases typically last much longer than the transition period of about two years.

The European Commission wants to create a way of denying market access if Britain adopts the tactic of simply waiting out any judgment until the end of the transition period.

A footnote explains: “The Governance and Dispute Settlement Part of the Withdrawal Agreement should provide for a mechanism allowing the Union to suspend certain benefits deriving for the United Kingdom from participation in the internal market where it considers that referring the matter to the Court of Justice of the European Union would not bring in appropriate time the necessary remedies.”

Sectors that could be subject to retaliatory measures could include financial services and the City of London, as well as cross-border trade and even British airline companies’ ability to land in EU airports.

Peter Ptassek, Germany’s senior Brexit official and deputy director-general for European affairs, tweeted: “Now we are talking #transition! Straight forward draft by [the commission] provides the clarity the economy facing Brexit needs. Not so much time left to get a deal on this in March.”

The revelations will enrage Brexiteers who have already warned that the transition period will reduce Britain to a “vassal state”.

The Telegraph exclusively revealed on Monday that Britain could be forced to accept nearly 40 EU directives during a two-year transition period after Brexit.

One of the EU’S conditions for transition is that Britain will lose all EU voting rights and representation during its duration but will still be forced to implement Brussels red tape.