North and trade ‘still Brexit’s thorny issues’
Both sides admit obstacles but remain optimistic
THE future of the Northern Ireland border and future economic cooperation between the EU and UK remain the key obstacles to progress in the Brexit talks, negotiators acknowledged yesterday.
Meeting in Brussels, negotiators for both sides agreed on the need to escalate the talks before Britain leaves the bloc in March.
The UK’s Brexit secretary Dominic Raab said a Brexit deal by the October target was still possible. ‘If we have that ambition, that pragmatism and that energy on both sides, I’m confident we can reach that agreement by October,’ Mr Raab told a press conference with EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier.
Mr Barnier said a ‘legally operational backstop’, or an emergency plan to avoid re-erecting regular border checks on the island of Ireland, was still missing, as well as a number of smaller divorce matters, including rules for indications of origin on products.
Signalling he was expecting a slip beyond October, he said an agreement must come ‘well before the end of the year’ to leave EU states and the European Parliament space to ratify it in time for March.
He said negotiations will be carried out ‘continuously’ in a bid to avoid a no-deal exit.
However, he said the EU would not be impressed if the UK engaged in a ‘blame game’ and warned Mr Raab not to underestimate the disruption a ‘nodeal’ exit could cause.
Despite UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s mantra that ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’, there has been increasing fear about the potential consequences should this happen. Asked if the UK would reconsider its decision to leave the EU if a no-deal Brexit became the only option, Mr Raab said: ‘Certainly on the UK side, no. We’ll be leaving in March of next year.’
Mr Barnier also rejected suggestions that the EU could revise some of its red line issues to secure a deal. ‘Why would we? How can you change principles on which the European Union is based? Why would you? The UK is leaving the European Union, it’s not the other way round,’ he said.
However, the UK has found it impossible to square this with their intention to leave both the single market and customs union. Doing so will free them up to strike new trade deals around the world, but will also create a demand for border infrastructure and customs checks on the island of Ireland as the border becomes the UK’s frontier with Europe.
The two sides are currently trying to come up with an alternative to the backstop that would be more politically palatable to the UK, after it deemed the EU’s initial legal text threatened to break up the union by separating Northern Ireland from the rest of Britain.
Talks between the two sides will continue in Brussels today.