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AN INTERNAL EU paper has suggested that it is essential for Northern Ireland to remain in the single market and the customs union to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.
Published by RTÉ‘s Tony Connolly, the working paper says that in order to avoid a hard border there must be no divergence of rules on either side of the Irish border.
That would require Northern Ireland to stay in the single market and the customs union.
The working paper was presented to British negotiators in Brussels yesterday after being circulated to the 27 member states on Wednesday night, according to RTÉ.
The paper suggests that the EU’s guiding principles underlined that an important part of political economic, security, societal and agricultural activity on the island of Ireland currently operates on a cross-border basis, “underpinned by joined EU membership of the EU and Ireland.”
Both the EU and the UK have already committed to protecting the Good Friday Agreement, the paper says.
It says achieving this must be done in a way that “respects the integrity of the internal market and the customs union of which Ireland will remain a full member”.
It goes on to say that it seems “essential” for the UK to commit to ensuring that there is no regulatory divergence from those rules of the internal market and the customs union “which are, or may be in the future, necessary for meaningful north-south cooperation, the all-Ireland economy and the protection of the Good Friday Agreement”.
An entirely new structure would be imposed on the United Kingdom if Northern Ireland were to remain inside the customs union and single market, while the rest of the UK was outside.
https://twitter.com/tconnellyRTE/status/928891842854313984
DUP tensions
The paper could put more pressure on the UK’s Conservative government given its reliance on Northern Ireland’s DUP party for survival.
The DUP has repeatedly warned that it will not accept any deals that may undermine the union between Britain and Northern Ireland.
The EU has said the UK can only qualify to Phase II of the Brexit negotiations if there is “sufficient progress” on the financial settlement, EU citizens’ rights, and the Irish border, according to RTÉ.
There was no breakthrough at the summit of EU leaders on 14 and 15 October as a result of a deadlock in the negotiations.
However, the working paper has revealed that both the EU and the UK have reached an agreement on the principle on the Common Travel Area.
“At the last round, agreement was reached in the principle on joint principles on the Common Travel Area which aim to recognise an existing bilateral arrangement between the UK and Ireland,” the paper says.
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The illogicality of a divided island is finally coming to international attention.
@winston smith: switzerland gets on fine on the mainland.
@Shawn O’Ceallaghan: They got on better last nite in Windsor park.
@winston smith:
Brits had a year and a half to come up with a proposal for the border. Doing nothing.
All they did was poo poo and cry about a reasonably suggested sea border.
Now the Eu have come up with a generous idea and they better take it, or no phase 2.
The dup minions claim to want a hard border but in private their leader begs the Republic to keep it open.
They have offered nothing to the debate and should to bonfires, yet we’re expected to give them everything or it will upset unionists.
At the end of the day the Tories will sell out, we know, they know it.
If they don’t accept this, no phase 2.
On another note, this deal to protect our sovereignty and economy would never have been proposed if the useless Irish government were negotiating.
I for one am relieved we have the Eu doing it for us.
@winston smith: Tell that to the same dimwits who keep championing iScotland.
@T Beckett is back: Ireland cannot negotiate separately. The EU is negotiating on our behalf as happens with all international EU agreements.
@T Beckett is back: the Europe is the ones that saying they have to have border
@winston smith: To be fair to them I think that the European Parliament are better informed about Irish maters than are the bunch of clowns at Westminster who know little and care even less what happens here.
@Patricia Cooney: nope, that would be Britain. The UK voted to put in a border. Luckily, the EU is working to have it in the Irish Sea rather than meandering through the Irish countryside.
@Shawn O’Ceallaghan: Switzerland has signed multiple treaties with the EU making it a de facto member of the EEA.
@Shawn O’Ceallaghan: Switzerland is not on an island, ignoramus.
@winston smith: The obvious solution is for Ireland to swallow its pride, leave the EU and rejoin the UK. It makes economic and good sense. Keep a power sharing devolved government in Kildare St.
@Bernard: the obvious solution is Britain leave as fast as possible and control their bordes, the north of Ireland border. But what they want is to be out of the EU but be part of the free market. The free market is for EU countries only, not for outsiders. The free market, the economy is much more important than borders. The deal is for EU countries only. So their is not deal for England. Don’t be so week. After that North of Ireland can vote if they want to stay in Great Britain or leave. That’s it. Not Ireland. Ireland didn’t vote. England has to leave as fast as possible with not deal and that is.
DUP/ unionists will never agree to it, it would mean using a passport to get to mainland UK, they are prepared to see their economy decimated and standarded of living fall to facilitate this. People must remember the majority of DUP supporters are creationists who believe every word in the bible, Adam and Eve, had two sons Cane and Abel, one killed the other so to procreate they must have had insest with their mother, they follow this logic.
@ktsiwot: BS, most DUP supporters are not creationists. They just vote for the DUP because they are unionists and the DUP is the hardline unionist party.
@Adrian: That is up for debate, however what is not up for debate is the majority of their elected politicians are, those that are in power are.
@ktsiwot: True, but the majority of our elected representatives down here believe in an almighty, all powerful bearded old man in the sky. Not quite as bad as creationism, but still…
@Adrian: Church and state should be no way near each other. The fact is in nearly every democracy in the world elected the majority representatives have some form of religion or religious bias. It was terrible down here, however in the north DUP blocked marriage equality and have tried or trying to bring creationism into the educational sector as we speak.
@ktsiwot: Northern Ireland already has a different status to the Rest of the UK on Gay Marriage and Abortion why not the customs union too
@ktsiwot: Airlines such as EasyJet have required a passport as ID from NI to Britain for years. Hardly a big deal. This seems (as usual) to be about symbolism for the DUP.
Btw most DUP supporters are NOT creationists. Their vote is largely tribalist in favour of the Union. As long as they remain hardline pro-union, most of their electorate couldn’t care less what they do. Depressing but true.
@ktsiwot: their economy will grow with Britain. It the Irish economy will suffer
@Patricia Cooney: What economy, NI RUNS a budget deficit of over 20% per Annam, They depend on subventions from the rest of the UK to the tune of 10 Billion, it is like Cuba when they were propped by the USSR. When brexit kicks in the rest of UK (England) will not be prepared to fund such a farce, they will needed it for themselves.
It’s going to be interesting to see how any sort of border is enforced considering that it could not be patrolled effectively with over 20,000 British soldiers in the 6 counties. There will be some amount of hijinx happening trade wise, not to mention with cross border shopping.
@The Risen:
It’s not often we agree on something but it’s that practical point about the border that has interested me since the brexit vote, as you say they couldn’t close it with thousands of British troops but also at that time a majority of the population on one side of the border wanted it closed but they still couldn’t manage it. Now as I understand it the vast majority of both communities both sides of the border don’t want a hard border.
How exactly are they going to enforce that???
@P.J. Nolan: We should just follow the French example. Have a load of rules and enforce none of the ones that don’t suit us.
@Ben McArthur:
Ha ha nice one.
I can see that solution being favored by British and Irish business leaders of all creeds. It gives a massive grey-area trading advantage to both, however I imagine that world trading establishments from Amsterdam, Hamburg, Marseille and Barcelona will all be clamoring to scupper this In case the Belfast – Dublin dyad becomes THE major EU trading hub. If they follow this route, it won’t look anything like their current proposal in the end.
@P.J. Nolan: The Brits have no intention of creating a border because they want the EU to create it and patrol and pay for it. That means Us. We’ll be forced to do it on behalf of our EU partners.
@Gerry Ryan deG:
Eh? Why would the EU want to put a border in? One of the whole points of the EU is to remove them?????
Probably the single biggest reason Britain voted to leave is a perceived loss of control of their borders.
We cannot stop someone from let’s say Romania moving to Ireland, why would we want to stop him from moving on to NI or Britain?
As was said above, Britain spent thirty years trying to seal that border with zero success, good luck to them.
Britain created this mess, let them fix it.
@Gerry Ryan deG:
Eh? The whole point of the EU is to remove borders, why would they want to but one in? The main reason Britain voted to leave is lack of control of their borders, if they want a border let them at it, no one else wants it.
They created this mess they can fix it, they spend thirty years trying to seal that border with zero success, good luck to them.
@P.J. Nolan:
Apologies, I thought the first didn’t go through.
@The Risen: as the border goes back up its the shinners i am most happy for. A good healthy dose of karma in the post. The best thing about the border is shinners have no say. That please me greatly LOL
@frank sullivan: you really come across as a very sad little man.
If there the Common Travel Area between Ireland and the UK is agreed then there would be no need for people from Northern Ireland to produce passports when crossing the Irish Sea.
However, its difficult to see how Northern Ireland could stay in the EU Customs Union without having to trade as a ‘foreign’ EU state when dealing with the rest of the UK (taxes, tariffs and controls etc.).
Barring a chaotic Hard Brexit, it looks like Northern Ireland is coming to its logical conclusion (and its not one Unionists are going to like…).
@Kieran Magennis: I disagree Kieran. The Conservatives and the DUP want a hard border and need one. For that reason it will happen unless the current coalition collapses before Brexit.
Yep ….seems like it is goodbye Nissan, Toyota, PSA and friends or the border is on the Irish Sea. I see a girls’ lunch coming up including as rather awkward conversation between May and Foster regarding someone going under an oncoming bus. Sorry Arlene.
Will be interesting to see what Mrs May and foster do next …over to you girls
@Totalitarian: Britain has to control it borders
NI remain in the custom union or no phase two . Poppies should be posted to the EU bureaucrats just to remind them why their EU exists . In the 1940s the UK borrow 120 billion to fund its part in liberating Europe . It took 61 yrs to pay in back . In the 60s the Brits had the second biggest military budget that went towards the defence of Europe against communism . They own the EU nothing .
@Tommy Whelan: Whether if they owe to the EU is a separate issue than NI. The fact is a solution needs to be made for NI regardless of the divorce bill. This is the only proposal that actually makes any sense. Unless you have another idea?
Northern Ireland already has a different status to the Rest of the UK on Gay Marriage and Abortion why not the customs union too
If the DUP had any sense, they’d jump at the chance of this. Full part of the single market and the British market. Ok, they’d have to compete with chlorinated chickens in Britain but it would be win win. Note: I said ‘if the DUP had any sense’. The reality is they’d rather see loyalist kids go hungry than do a deal
@Paul Devlin: unfortunately @Paul Devlin you’ve hit it in one. The DUP are so bitter and bigoted that seeing loyalist kids go hungry is a price they are more than willing to pay. As long as MORE nationalist children suffer, they’ll see it as a victory.
Northern Ireland torn between two lovers
@Casper: Acting like a fool…loving both of us and breaking all the rules?
Damned you for putting that song in my head!
@Alan Walter Gallagher: it‘s more like ‚Clowns to the left, Jokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you‘
@Matt Beaumont: Or is that “stuck in the middle with EU….”
@Fred Croydon: More like what to do with the foster child…
For those haters (you know who you are) who dreamed of a Hard border.
This is the real Karma. TAL !
This Brexit thing is primarily a messy divorce, with Britain as an aging former star, trying to get rid of his wife, and being surprised when she won’t just leave the home like a good girl, and put it all down to experience. When her lawyer shows up with a string of demands, Britain seems genuinely surprised, as in “you mean there are payments to be made??” And did you seriously think that you could just shake hands and walk away? If we weren’t right in the middle of it, it would be seriously funny!
The phoney war is over. Things should start to get interesting in negotiations now…
http://www.abitleftandabitlost.com/posts/brexit-negotiations-so-far-feel-like-the-phoney-war
If May accepts this, DUP could (but highly unlikely) bring down UK Govt…
http://www.abitleftandabitlost.com/posts/what-can-end-theresa-mays-time-as-prime-minister
But if they do, it could get Labour elected!
This is better than Game of Thrones.
Time to say “No” and walk away.
@Damocles: Who should say ‘NO’ to who, and over what?
@WinSomeLoseSome: the UK should say “No” to the EU and walk away from this farcical negotiation exercise. If the EU wants to force a hard border on NI let them. If a business outside the UK wants to trade with a business inside the UK then they can obey the legislation of their own country and of the UK. And vice versa. Tariffs may apply.
@Damocles: The Public did say no but they are not sure whether to walk away or run, walk back timidly or jump off the cliff. Sentimentality and nostalgia is not a political ideology so remarkable to see politicians implode trying to make sense of it but what did they think was going to happen.
@Gerald Kelleher: the “negotiation” is now at the point where the leader of a country smaller than Yorkshire thinks he can dictate the integrity of UK sovereignty and the shape of the trade deal.
This has gone far enough.
The EU has no interest in a deal of any kind.
Let’s just leave it.
@Damocles: breaking up the negotiations and just leave without any treaties in place would be economical suicide! You clearly over estimate the economic strength of the UK on it’s own, with no treaties in place with Ireland and the mainland! It would be a terrible disaster which the UK wouldn’t survive!
@Matt Beaumont: No deal will be bad for lots of people, but that seems to be where the EU political negotiators are pushing this.
@Damocles: That seems brave, much like yanking the wires out of a bomb out in the hope it doesn’t explode but unfortunately Ireland is in the line of that explosion despite neither creating the bomb or the bomber. On the bright side it goes to show how far protest politics gets a society so the miserable airheads in the Journal can have a good look complaining about and mocking as a lifestyle.
@Damocles: It’s not the EU it’s the fact that May and her cohorts have absolutely no plan and no clue!
She is completely overwhelmed with the task and her party seems to prefer fighting among each other instead of pulling together and negotiate a good deal for their people!
If I bring nothing to the table I cannot be surprised if people not taking me seriously!
@Gerald Kelleher: Ireland put itself in the line of that explosion when its leader started trying to dictate terms.
@Damocles: The EU negotiator and to an extent our leader got it right, it is not really a negotiation between two Sovereign territories as one territory is not sure what it is aiming for apart from something it already has in terms Sovereignty and integrity. Brexit must have sounded great in the debating halls of Universities but once it escaped into social policy as a referendum, something so complex forced into a yes/no vote was always going to be a spectacle. Reasonable people do understand the need to check the reach of an economic bloc but isolation isn’t the answer.
It’s time for the EU to be harder and put more pressure to England to leave as fast as posible. All this big mess was created by them with not solutions. They just through about them-self when they voted. All this created by them can end putting all of us, europeans countries in a bad economy situation. England has to leave as fast as possible with no deal. We need to star to think about us, about our economy, not about the ones who left. Simple.
May might try and sell the 6 counties…bids could start around the fiddy million mark.
While politicians sit ungainly upon the border fence; people of Ireland scream out loud for common sense.
So the EU are beginning to come around to the UK’s position.. all that remains is that none itemised ‘illegal’ bill they are on about.
@Martin Critten: “the EU are beginning to come around to the UK’s position” it isn’t the UK position. NI in the single market/custom union means border control in NI airports, not on the land border. The DUP are totally opposed to this approach. The DUP are propping up the current UK government.
@Martin Critten: It’s the opposite that is true.
@Martin Critten: __ The UK hasn’t got a position, unless of course going round and round in circles is a position. The Tories are too busy fighting with each other, and won’t know what they want until the fighting is over.
@Martin Critten:
Can’t accept the Eu have got the upper hand Martin?
@WinSomeLoseSome: With Stormont in lockdown the DUP aren’t exactly running anything at the moment.
@Harry Whitehead: The DUP are propping up the Tories to make up for their inability to form a majority in the UK government. They can withdraw that support and collapse the UK government. This has nothing to do with Stormont.
@WinSomeLoseSome: the DUP won’t bring down the government as they know if they did Labour would win hands down in another election.
@Cathal Mac Einri: you could be right. Either way, big stakes all around.
It is the intention of the DUP and the Conservatives to force a hard Brexit and hard border. The Conservatives need NI unionists to bolster their power in Westminster. The certainty of Unionist dominance is threatened by the arrival of EU citizens into NI. That is why emigration issues raised by British nationalists focusses on EU migration (40%) and not from ex-colonies (60%). They would have us believe that it actually easier to withdraw from the EU than pass laws restricting migration from the Commonwealth. EU citizens are more likely to vote and more likely to vote for non-unionist parties.
It is absurd to suggest a soft border between the Republic & Northern Ireland because
if that happened there would have to be a hard border between Ni & the rest of the UK
thereby isolating NI from the rest of the UK and to many, this would look like Irish unification.The EU trade & people movement barriers would have to apply to NI and
a soft border would not achieve this short of NI joining the South or becoming a seperate EU member country. Perhaps that’s what the EU is angling at in order to weaken the UK.
@Moorooka Mick: more of a wet border than a hard border
A very common sense question given thatvaa Veehofstadt said it is illogical and absurd.
Well, hi abite yee!
500 hundred days and counting
I hope the Loyalist lads haven’t decommissioned just yet…
When Britain Brexits, all our border smugglers will be employed by her as privateers
It will be so good if NI stay in the Single Market..
We can still import cars without paying duty or VAT..
In other words the north of ireland is staying in the eu so much for the uk
have your say