No Brexit deal for UK unless Ireland satisfied, says EU’s chief negotiator Barnier
THE EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, has given Ireland his clearest message of support, insisting its interests will be defended in any exit deal with the UK.
Mr Barnier, who begins a two-day visit to Ireland today, has given a written guarantee that no withdrawal deal for the UK will be signed off unless the Dublin Government is satisfied with the terms.
“We will not sign any agreement with the UK unless we – together with the Irish government – are satisfied with the solution found for Ireland,” Mr Barnier wrote in yesterday’s ‘Sunday Independent’.
The former French foreign minister and EU regional policy commissioner is in Dundalk today to address a meeting of the All-Ireland civic dialogue on Brexit. He will also visit Northern Ireland, and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has welcomed his latest assurances and attendance at today’s event.
In his piece for the ‘Sunday Independent’, Mr Barnier said he must negotiate Brexit terms in the interests of all 27 EU member states. But he noted Ireland’s “unique situation”, which required imagination and creativity to mitigate harm and EU solidarity was vital for this. “No matter how big or small a country is in the EU, we stand by each other through thick and thin,” he wrote.
He also noted that the UK’s insistence on leaving both the EU single market and customs union as part of Brexit created unique problems for the Border in Ireland.
Mr Barnier said that after Brexit happens in March 2019, and at the end of a transition period expected to expire in December 2020, the Republic would be inside the EU single market while the North would be outside it.
“This will inevitably create challenges for both jurisdictions on the island, as well as for trade between Ireland and the UK, and Ireland and the rest of the EU,” he added.
The EU negotiator insisted
that he would not conclude the so-called ‘withdrawal agreement’ with Britain without a Border solution being included in the text. He said if a solution couldn’t be found, the so-called “backstop option” agreed in principle last December would apply.
Doubts
Britain has since raised serious doubts about the backstop, challenging a legal text produced in February as being different from what it understood was agreed last December. The backstop would see the North mimicking EU rules and product standards after Brexit, but things have been further complicated by the Democratic Unionist Party, which props up Prime Minister Theresa May’s minority government, insisting the North be treated the same as other parts of the UK.
“But no matter how challenging this will be over the coming months, I want to underline that the EU is fully committed to having a safety net in our agreement – the so-called backstop option – in case the overall future relationship between the EU and the UK does not in itself solve the Border issue,” Mr Barnier continued.
“This backstop solution will be there to prevent the return of a Border on the island of Ireland, and to protect Northsouth co-operation and the Good Friday Agreement, whatever the future relationship between the EU and the UK holds in store,” he added.
Addressing Irish fears that the issue could drag on to the final EU leaders’ summit in October, Mr Barnier said he wanted to see “substantial progress” by the next summit on June 28 and 29 in Brussels.
Brexiteers in Theresa May’s Cabinet are urging her not to rule out putting cameras and checkpoints on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic in a bid to avoid a “damaging” customs partnership deal with Brussels.
Ministers will call on the Prime Minister to rethink the ‘definition’ of a hard border and hold talks to determine what might make an alternative customs plan work after Brexit.
Brexiteers fear the partnership plan said to be favoured by Mrs May and Olly Robbins, her chief Brexit negotiator, would be an unworkable “disaster” and leave the UK without the ability to strike free trade deals.
The EU negotiator urged the British to use the coming weeks to engage in meaningful negotiations