eu May not accept pm’s border plans..
tanaiste worried about impact on single market
THE British Prime Minister’s plans for preventing a hard border could be rejected by the EU, the Tanaiste warned yesterday.
Theresa May has committed to leaving the customs union which guarantees tariff-free trade.
However, she insisted a hard border can be avoided through technological solutions and placing no new restrictions on the 80% of crossfrontier trade carried out by smaller businesses.
Foreign Minister Simon Coveney told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show he was “not sure the EU will be able to support” the plan, as it would be worried about protecting the integrity of the single market.
The Tanaiste said:
“While of course we will explore and look at all of the proposed British solutions, they are essentially a starting point in negotiations as opposed to an end point.” Mr Coveney added if agreement cannot be reached during talks , the backstop plan of full British alignment with customs union and single market rules that Mrs May “committed clearly” to in December would have to be put in place. In a major speech on Friday, she rejected “unacceptable” EU proposals to retain customs union arrangements in the North.
But Mrs May accepted the UK’S “responsibility” to help maintain a soft border – spelling out in detail how she believed this could be achieved by technological means or through a broader trade agreement.
But Mr Coveney said: “This isn’t a question of either side wanting to put up borders, but if you have to protect a functioning single market, just the same way Britain wants to protect its own single market, well then you have to understand that if goods move from one customs union to another then there needs to be some checks unless there is some mechanism that is negotiated and put in place that prevents that.”