The chief European negotiator for Brexit, Michel Barnier, warned on Monday of the risk of the negotiations for separation from London collapsing due to the Irish border.
“The framework of the agreement must contain a clear and workable solution regarding Ireland,” Barnier told reporters in Ireland. “Until we reach such an agreement, there is a risk” that the negotiations will not be successfully concluded, he added.
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Speaking in Dundalk, near the border with Northern Ireland, he expressed hope that progress would be made at the European Councils in June and October, emphasizing that he does not “support further delays” in reaching an agreement.
He also reminded that the implementation of the transition period, which is supposed to last from the end of March 2019 to the end of December 2020, depends on reaching a separation agreement in October.
The UK and the EU emphasize that they want to prevent the re-establishment of a ‘hard’ border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, an EU member.
This is about preserving the peace agreement reached on Good Friday in 1988, which ended three decades of bloody conflict in Northern Ireland.
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The British agreed in March to include the possibility of regulatory alignment between the EU and Northern Ireland in the draft separation agreement until a better solution is found.
This “backup” solution is on the table due to British red lines, Barnier said on Monday, as London has decided to leave the customs union and the single market.
According to him, it is a “workable solution” proposed by the EU, and not “questioning the constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom” where some fear the establishment of an internal border if Northern Ireland remains regulatory aligned with the Union, while the rest of the country does not.
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Barnier, who will meet with representatives of employers and farmers from both sides of the border during his two-day visit, called for this issue, which he considers technical, not to be dramatized.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar emphasized that “Ireland and the EU do not in any case want to annex” Northern Ireland. He stated that the backup solution is not the best solution for anyone, but that the British red lines are the main obstacles to finding a better solution.
Barnier told the Irish newspaper Sunday Independent on Sunday that Britain, having created a problem due to Brexit, should also propose a practical solution to the issue of the Irish border, but it has not yet done so.
