Ireland Brexit proposal in tatters

EU ‘annihilates’ May’s plan to avoid a hard border, leaving just 10 weeks for Britain to find a solution

THE EU has comprehensively rejected British proposals for avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland in a move that casts serious doubt on the UK’S ability to leave the customs union, The

Daily Telegraph has learnt. Senior EU diplomatic sources said that Theresa May’s plan for avoiding a hard border was subjected to a “systematic and forensic annihilation” this week at a meeting between senior EU officials and Olly Robbins, the UK’S lead Brexit negotiator.

“It was a detailed and forensic rebuttal,” added the source, who was briefed on the meeting on Wednesday. “It was made clear that none of the UK’S customs options will work. None of them.”

The demolition of the UK’S Brexit customs policy, set out by Mrs May in her Mansion House speech last month, came after five rounds of technical negotiations in Brussels. It now sends the Cabinet and Whitehall back to the drawing board and raises the serious prospect that Mrs May will have no choice but to remain in the EU customs union if she wants to avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland.

The blow follows the Government’s first defeat in the House of Lords over the EU Withdrawal Bill, with peers voting for an amendment that favours staying in the customs union.

Although British negotiators were fully aware of EU scepticism, the complete inflexibility of the European Commission and EU member states is understood to have left them shocked.

The impasse will reopen the debate over UK membership of the customs union, which has been ruled out by Mrs May and Brexiteers as a “betrayal” of Brexit. Boris Johnson warned this week that there would be “very little point in Brexit” if the UK was not free to set its own tariffs.

The Telegraph also understands that Michel Barnier, the EU’S chief Brexit negotiator, has suspended internal talks on the future EU-UK trade deal, putting further pressure on the UK.

With only 10 weeks until the June European Council meeting, The Telegraph understands that Mrs May will now chair weekly meetings of her inner Brexit “war cabinet” as Whitehall scrambles to find solutions.

During last month’s speech, Mrs May said that remaining in the EU customs union would “not be compatible with a meaningful independent trade policy”, and proposed two options for avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland while retaining the ability to set tariffs.

The first was a “customs partnership” in which the UK would collect duties on the EU’S behalf for goods that were destined for the European Union.

This was rejected by the EU on three grounds – first, that the EU could not allow a country outside its supervision mechanisms and IT systems to levy duties; secondly, that it unfairly placed the burden of collecting tariffs on business; and thirdly, that implementing the scheme would be too expensive.

Mrs May’s second proposal was a “highly streamlined customs arrangement”, which would combine “trusted trader” schemes with technology. This, too, was rejected by member states who are concerned about setting precedents for “turning a blind eye”.

At a briefing in Brussels last week, one ambassador reportedly asked if anyone could tell him how to open an export-import business in Ireland, “because it is going to be great business if there are no customs controls”.

Doubly worrying were EU warnings to Mr Robbins that, even if the UK did join a customs union, there would still need to be “full compliance” with EU rules on goods and agricultural products – and not just in Northern Ireland.

“It was made clear that you cannot leave only Northern Ireland aligned on goods and agriculture and not the rest of the UK. In this scenario, you would still need full ‘third country’ barriers between Belfast and UK mainland ports,” the source said.

Following the defeat in the Lords, Tory rebels increased pressure yesterday by tabling a motion calling on the Government to make being in an EU customs union a negotiating objective.

The vote, which has cross-party backing, will be non-binding but government whips are expected to use it to take the temperature of the Commons ahead of similar votes in the future that could force ministers to change course.

‘It was a … forensic rebuttal. It was made clear that none of the UK’S customs options will work. None of them’

The EU’S Northern Ireland gamble is more proof that it is not a liberal trading bloc but an authoritarian political project. The UK has offered two reasonable solutions for a postbrexit Irish border. Both have been rejected. It is revealing that an EU ambassador joked he would like to know how to set up a business in Ireland after Brexit because, under the British plan, he would be rolling in cash. That is rather the point. The UK has sought through talks to build a future that is light on rules and enriches both sides. Its perspective is pro-business. The EU, by contrast, is motivated by politics. It wants to humiliate us, to bind us to its regulations in perpetuity.

The Remainer confederacy – a mix of Eurocrats, former prime ministers, MPS and peers – wants to use Northern Ireland to compel the UK to stay in the customs union. If a porous land border is impossible, the argument goes, then only a division down the Irish Sea will do – a solution that is totally unacceptable to the Unionist community. Therefore, the Europhiles say, why not just keep the entire UK within the customs union? The answer is that it would reduce Britain to a position where it is unable to sign trade deals with the rest of the world and be forced to accept EU regulation without having any say in it.

In which case, the Remainer case continues, is there really any point to leaving the EU at all? This is the endgame for the EU – to make the process of leaving so expensive, so complicated and so diluted that Britain declares to the world that it was wrong even to try and, please, “can we stay put?” This would, of course, be a reversal of the democratic verdict of the 2016 referendum and nothing less than a national humiliation.

Theresa May has to tell the EU that Northern Ireland is not a pawn in its game. She must stand up to the EU and make it clear that Britain seeks a border that is as open as possible, that helps sustain the peace process and which upholds the territorial integrity of the UK. She must come up with a solution, not a fudge. As the next Brussels summit approaches, it might be tempting to chase a compromise to keep the process on schedule – but a Britain that threatens to walk away is far more likely to get what it wants in the end.

Moreover, there is a moral argument to advance. By cynically playing the Northern Ireland issue, the EU is not defending the international order, as it often likes to claim. It is threatening to unpick it.