UK and Ireland to have a ‘Schengen area’

PM hopes free movement of Irish citizens in and out of the UK will strengthen hand at exit negotiations

THERESA MAY is to offer free movement to Irish citizens in and out of Britain after the UK leaves the EU, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

News of the offer of a “Schengen area” between Britain and Ireland came as the Government prepares to publish a formal proposal to the EU on the future of the Northern Irish border.

The Prime Minister hopes that the offer will mean that Leo Varadkar, the Irish Taoiseach, will become a key ally for Britain during the tough withdrawal negotiations over the next 20 months.

Mr Varadkar has expressed frustration at the UK government’s failure so far to ensure there is no return to the “hard” border between the Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Britain will offer to track goods crossing the Irish border with CCTV cameras and automated number plate technology as part of a light-touch customs regime.

Other documents setting out Brit- ain’s involvement in the customs union after Brexit, including fisheries and agriculture, will be published next week, along with those on the continued availability of goods for the EU and the UK, and confidentiality and access to official documents.

The publications come as David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, prepares a third round of talks with Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, in Brussels next week.

Mr Barnier is reported to have said the first two rounds failed to produce clarity on the Irish border, rights of EU citizens in the UK, and Britain’s “divorce bill”. His gloomy assessment cast doubt on whether the talks will have made enough progress to begin discussions in the autumn on a free trade deal between Britain and the EU.

A source at the Department for Exiting the EU said: “We’ve been crystal clear that issues around our withdrawal and our future partnership are inextricably linked. The negotiations so far have reinforced that. These papers show we are ready to broaden the negotiations. Businesses and citizens in the UK and EU want to see the talks move towards a deal that works for both sides.”

The Ireland/Northern Ireland paper, which will be published in the middle of this week, is the UK Government’s pitch to “protect the common travel areas and the Good Friday agreement”, said a source, adding that Ireland and the UK will effectively have its own Schengen area. Every year an estimated 20,000 people come to work on the British mainland from the Irish Republic.

“The movement of people should not alter at all – you can come into Ireland as you do now, the source continued.

“And any Irish person at the moment can work freely in the UK as can a UK citizen in Ireland and that will continue.”

The arrangement will effectively restore the Common Travel Area, a special zone between the republic, the UK, Isle of Man and Channel Islands, which dates back to the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922.

After Brexit, EU nationals will be able to go to Ireland on holiday and not show passports to get into the UK. But they will not be allowed to work in the UK because they will not have a work permit.

The source said Irish citizens would effectively have better rights than other EU nationals.

The Government will also develop a trusted trader scheme which will allow goods to be carried north and south from established firms.

David Davis said on the publication of the papers: “This is an important next step in delivering on last summer’s referendum and getting on with task set to us by the British public.”