Irish plan to sail directly to EU after Brexit

SHIPPING companies in Ireland are making plans to bypass British ports after Brexit and travel direct to the Continent to avoid new customs checks and possible tailbacks.

Irish hauliers, who use Britain as a staging post to travel to Europe, have brought forward new direct routes, despite promises by the British Government that future trade will be frictionless, as it is now, and agreement on a Brexit transition period prolonging the status quo until the end of 2020.

Michel Barnier, the European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator, has repeatedly warned that frictionless trade is impossible outside of the bloc’s single market and customs union even if there is a UK-EU free trade agreement.

CLDN, a shipping company in Luxembourg, has introduced two “mega vessels” on new direct freight routes between Dublin and the ports of Zeebrugge, Belgium, and Rotterdam. Irish Continental Group will boost weekly freight capacity from 120 to 1,155 lorries between Dublin and the French port of Cherbourg this summer.

Brittany ferries will this month start a service between Cork and Santander in Spain

“In anticipation of Brexit, the shipping community was looking for alternative solutions” CLDN told the Financial Times.

Freight between Ireland and the UK will continue to be busy even if the direct routes do lessen the traffic.

Meanwhile, British Brexit negotiators face a race against the clock to convince the EU they can prevent the return of customs on the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

An April 18 meeting between Olly Robbins and Sabine Weyand, top UK and EU officials, has been identified as a crunch point in negotiations over the “so-called backstop clause”.

Theresa May has ruled out a European Commission proposal to keep Northern Ireland in the single market and customs union, which would create a new border in the Irish Sea, if Britain’s preferred options of a free-trade agreement or innovative technical solutions fail.

Britain must find an alternative before the June EU summit or run the risk that the Brexit deal will not be finished in time to be ratified by national governments and the European Parliament before the March 29 deadline.