Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
IRELAND AND EUROPE UNITED ON BORDER DEAL
No withdrawl treaty before an agreement on frontier
IRELAND and the EU’S negotiating team are united on insisting there can be no Brexit withdrawal treaty without a deal on the border, the Tanaiste has said.
Simon Coveney called again for legal certainty on maintaining a free-flowing frontier between north and south after meeting with the EU’S chief negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels.
His comments came as Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou Mcdonald accused Brexiteers who claim a soft border can be maintained by technology alone of serving up “fantastical non-starters”.
Last December, the UK and EU agreed the need for a “backstop” option that would ensure no return of a hard border – through an alignment of regulations across the island – even if a wider Brexit trade deal failed to materialise.
The UK rejected a subsequent attempt by the EU to translate that agreement into legally operable text in a proposed withdrawal treaty. A political stand-off has ensued over the vexed issue.
After talks with Mr Barnier, Mr Coveney again stressed the need for the backstop to be resolved ahead of June’s crunch European Council summit.
He said: “Michel Barnier has made it very clear, and I agree with him, that there will be no withdrawal treaty if there isn’t a backstop dealing with the Irish border in that treaty.”
The Irish government is hopeful a comprehensive resolution could lie in the concept of shared customs territory. Mr Coveney has suggested Theresa May’s vision of a partnership – where the UK collects tariffs on behalf of Brussels – could provide the basis for negotiating a solution.
However, the UK cabinet is at odds on the issue. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has branded the Prime Minister’s idea “crazy” and he and other detractors of the partnership concept instead contend that new technology and trusted trader schemes can provide for smooth cross-border trading.
Mr Coveney said: “There is no flexibility on two things – one, there has to be backstop in the withdrawal agreement.
“If there isn’t a backstop there won’t be a withdrawal agreement.
Back in Belfast, Ms Mcdonald accused Brexiteers in the UK Government of “playing games” and stalling for time.
She insisted a firm resolution to the border problem had to be struck by next month.
Ms Mcdonald said: “I think June now needs to be understood by all parties to this negotiation, but by the British Government in particular, as a red letter occasion and an occasion on which we need answers.”
She also accused the DUP of betraying the people of Ireland, north and south.
Her remarks came after Democratic Unionist MP Sammy Wilson branded Mr Coveney “belligerent, interfering and Brit bashing” for advocating the EU/UK shared customs territory concept.
BRUSSELS YESTERDAY