UK ‘may offer Ireland free movement’ as olive branch

IRISH people could still be able to travel to and from the UK without the prospect of facing passport checks after Britain leaves the European Union, according to reports.

The British government has said it will reveal this week how it plans to administer the Northern Irish border after it leaves the EU in less than two years’ time.

Leo Varadkar has expressed his frustration at the failure so far of the UK government to come up with firm proposals to ensure there is no return to the ‘hard’ border between the North and the Republic.

On his first official visit to the North as Taoiseach earlier this month, Mr Varadkar even put forward his own suggestions for a ‘soft Brexit’ – including the Customs union? Theresa May possibility of creating a new EUUK customs union.

It is believed that Britain’s plans will be in line with Prime Minister’s Theresa May’s intention to leave both the single market and the customs union and will involve some form of customs checks along the 500km border. However, in a move that is being regarded as an olive branch to Mr Varadkar, it’s expected that the British will offer freedom of movement to Irish people after the UK finally leaves the EU in March of 2019.

A Common Travel Area granting freedom of movement to citizens of the UK and Ireland existed between the two jurisdictions prior to both countries joining the then EEC in the 1970s.

But that arrangement is now under threat after the UK’s vote last year to leave the EU.

However, according to British newspaper the Sunday Telegraph, Conservative leader Theresa May will offer to create an ‘Schengen Area’ between Britain and Ireland on leaving the EU.

The Schengen Area is made up of 26 European states that have officially abolished passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders.

Mrs May’s offer comes as her government plans to publish a series of policy documents which will outline Britain’s aims for the Brexit talks.

The papers will be published this week amid criticism about a lack of clarity over the UK government’s negotiating position and will include one covering the thorny issue of the Northern border.

A second batch of papers, to be released in the run-up to the October meeting of the European Council in Brussels, will look at ‘future partnership’ arrangements, including the UK’s proposals for a new customs deal with the EU.

Britain’s Brexit minister David Davis said the publication of the papers would mark ‘an important next step’ towards delivering last year’s referendum vote.

The disclosure comes as Mr Davis prepares to embark on a third round of talks with the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier in the Belgian capital at the end of this month.

Mr Barnier is reported to have warned EU ambassadors the first two rounds had failed to produce sufficient clarity on the opening issues of the Irish border, the rights of EU citizens in the UK, and Britain’s ‘divorce bill’.

His gloomy assessment cast doubt on whether the talks will have made enough progress to begin discussions in the autumn on a new free trade deal between Britain and the EU.

Sources at the Department for Exiting the EU insisted the issues of Britain’s withdrawal – which include the divorce bill the UK will have to pay in respect of its outstanding liabilities – remained ‘inextricably linked’ with the talks on its future relations with the bloc.

EU officials have expressed impatience with the slow pace of Britain’s preparations. Comment – Page 12

peter.doyle@dailymail.ie

‘An important next step’