Solution to border dispute coming, says May
EU talks: Clock ticking to solve Irish problem
THERESA MAY has insisted she remains confident that Brexit negotiating teams can find a solution to the Irish border problem in time to secure the go-ahead for trade talks, despite yesterday’s key meeting with EU leaders breaking up without a deal.
Speaking after an extended lunch with the EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Mrs May conceded there were still differences between the two sides which “require further negotiation” but expressed optimism that they will “conclude this positively”.
Yesterday’s meeting was widely expected to produce an agreement on how to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, with suggestions that this could see “regulatory convergence” between Belfast and the EU. However, these reports sparked a backlash from Scottish and Northern Irish politicians, with the DUP issuing a fresh warning that they could not support such a deal.
Mrs May’s trip to Brussels was seen as a final push to persuade the leaders of the remaining EU member states to agree to the next phase of Brexit talks at a meeting of the EU Council next week. The trading bloc has demanded to see “sufficient progress” in three areas: the UK’s financial obligations to the EU, the remit of the European courts and a solution for the Irish border.
Speaking ahead of yesterday’s talks, the Brexit Secretary David Davis expressed hope that after seven months of negotiations “Mr Juncker today will give us sufficient progress”. But within hours the Commission President confirmed that no agreement was reached.
“Despite our best efforts and significant progress we and our teams have made over the past days on the three main withdrawal issues, it was not possible to reach a complete agreement today,” he told a joint press conference. “We now have a common understanding on most relevant issues, with just two or three open for discussion. These will require further consultation.
“We stand ready to resume the negotiations with the United Kingdom here in Brussels later this week. I’m still confident that we can reach sufficient progress before the European Council of December 15.”
Mrs May, who is understood to have broken off the lunch with Mr Juncker to speak to the DUP leader Arlene Foster, described the meeting as “constructive” and said both sides would continue discussions later this week. “It is clear, crucially, that we want to move forward together. But on a couple of issues some differences do remain which require further negotiation and consultation,” she said. “And those will continue, but we will reconvene before the end of the week and I am also confident that we will conclude this positively.”
However, the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said it was “disappointing” that no progress had been made “after months of delays and grandstanding”.
THE LEADER of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party has sent a clear warning to Downing Street not to pursue a deal that could result in “regulatory divergence” between the UK and Belfast after Brexit, stating that the party’s MPs “will not accept” it.
Speaking after a crucial meeting between the Prime Minister and EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, the DUP’s Arlene Foster suggested any move toward special status for Northern Ireland posed a threat to “the economic and constitutional integrity” of Britain.
Her comments came amid speculation that negotiating teams were close to agreeing a solution to the Irish border problem, which would require Northern Ireland to replicate EU regulations in a range of areas relating to cross-border cooperation.
The intervention further complicates attempts to avoid a hard border with the Republic, as well as casting doubt on the strength of the alliance between the Conservative Government and the DUP’s ten MPs.
Reports of a special deal for Northern Ireland prompted an outcry from the Scottish Government yesterday, with critics claiming it would entail the country remaining within the EU single market and customs union.
Taking to Twitter, the SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon stated that if this proves to be the case, other devolved nations should be offered the same option.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, also waded into the row, arguing that if Theresa May has conceded “that it’s possible for part of the UK to remain within the single market and customs union after Brexit” the same arrangement should be secured for London. “Londoners overwhelmingly voted to remain in the EU and a similar deal here could protect tens of thousands of jobs,” he wrote.
However, issuing a formal statement just hours before Mr Juncker confirmed no deal on Ireland has yet been reached, Ms Foster was firm in her opposition to the proposals.
Speaking in Belfast, she made it clear her party “will not accept any form of regulatory divergence which separate Northern Ireland economically or politically from the rest of the UK”, while expressing frustration at the actions of the Irish government.
“We have been very clear: Northern Ireland must leave the European Union on the same terms as the rest of the United Kingdom,” she said. “The economic and constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom must not be compromised in any way.
“For our part, of course, we do want to see a sensible Brexit, a Brexit where the common travel area is continued, where we meet our financial obligations, where we have a strict, time-limited implementation period, and where the contribution of EU migrants to our economy is recognised in a practical manner.
“The Republic of Ireland government for their part claim to be guarantors of the Belfast agreement but they are clearly seeking to unilaterally change that Belfast agreement without our input or our consent. And of course we will not stand for that.”
DUP MP Sammy Wilson went on to suggest that regulatory convergence between Northern Ireland and the EU would face opposition from within the Conservative party. Speaking to the BBC, the East Antrim MP said the Prime Minister could encounter problems “not just... with the DUP” but also “with her own backbenchers, many of whom realise this kind of agreement would have a threat to the union of the United Kingdom”.
Meanwhile, the former head of the Foreign Office Lord Ricketts suggested the proposals could “dramatically curtail” the scope for the UK to pursue free trade agreements with nations like the US.
THERE HAS been much talk about the financial cost of Brexit to the UK in recent weeks with the so-called ‘divorce settlement’ with the EU reportedly due to run into tens of billions of pounds. But now the vexed question of the Irish border is beginning to make clear just how high the political costs could be.
The issue has been a key sticking point in preventing negotiations with the EU moving on to future trade arrangements and reports yesterday morning suggested the UK would agree to “regulatory alignment” between north and south, potentially allowing Ireland and Northern Ireland to follow the same rules governing trade, and thus ensure goods continue to move freely across a “soft” border with no checks.
But within hours, the ramifications of pursuing such a strategy became abundantly clear. Arlene Foster, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party which props up Theresa May’s minority Conservative Government, said quite simply her party would not accept any deal which separates Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.
The idea of regulatory alignment in Ireland received a very different reaction from Nicola Sturgeon and Sadiq Khan, with the pair separately suggesting Remain-voting Scotland and London should be offered a similar deal. First Minister of Wales Carwyn Jones also said his nation would expect the same offer.
The excruciating political quandary means the border issue must be resolved in a way which somehow allows trade talks with the EU to begin, does not threaten the hard-won peace process in Ireland, addresses whether other parts of the UK should be allowed similar special treatment and maintains the minority Government in Westminster.
It appears a nearimpossible tightrope for the Prime Minister to walk; but the consequences of failure throw up all manner of alarming repercussions.