EU backing Leo demand for border assurances

MICHEL Barnier has backed Ireland’s demand for assurances from the UK over the border with the North, saying ‘those who wanted Brexit must offer solutions’.

The EU’s chief negotiator indicated the other 26 states are fully behind Ireland’s insistence that Britain offers a pathway on the border issue.

This must happen before the leader’s summit in mid-December, if talks are to proceed to the next stage.

On Friday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he wanted a promise in writing that there would be no hard border – a sentiment echoed by Mr Barnier at a speech in Brussels yesterday.

Mr Barnier said: ‘We need to preserve stability and dialogue on the island of Ireland. We need to avoid a hard border. I know that this point is politically sensitive in the UK. It is not less sensitive in Ireland.’

He called on Britain to come forward with proposals as part of its responsibilities under the Good Friday Agreement, saying it was not up to the EU to make compromises.

Mr Barnier repeated Mr Varadkar’s insistence that the UK will need to abide by the same rules and regulations on state aid and standards post-Brexit.

This position has been rejected in London, saying it could cause double standards in the UK. Mr Barnier has said the North already has its own rules in more than 100 areas.

‘Think of the whole island electricity market,’ he said. ‘Or the specific regulations for plant health for the whole island of Ireland. Think of rules that prevent and hinder animal disease, which I know quite well as a former minister for agriculture.’

Mr Barnier said while the EU wants to offer its ‘most ambitious free trade agreement’, there could be no question of Britain ‘cherry picking’ elements of the single market.