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Updated 2 pm
LEO VARADKAR HAS met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel as part of his first visit to Berlin since being elected Taoiseach.
After their meeting, the pair held a joint press conference in the German capital at which the ongoing Brexit negotiations were the primary focus.
Ahead of the meeting, the Taoiseach’s department said discussions would focus on the agenda for this week’s meeting of the European Council which includes Brexit, trade and digital taxation.
Leo Varadkar / TwitterGreat meeting with Angela Merkel in Berlin. We talked about #brexit, Irish border, and this week’s @EUCouncil meeting pic.twitter.com/MCgeKnfDeo
— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) March 20, 2018
Germany is Ireland’s second largest source of inward investment, third largest source of tourists, fourth largest overall trading partner, and fifth largest food export market.
Speaking ahead of his visit, Varadkar said: “I look forward to my first visit to Berlin as Taoiseach, and to congratulating the Chancellor on her re-election. We have a lot of work to do together, both bilaterally and within our shared European Union.”
The meeting also comes a day after the EU and the UK agreed that the so-called backstop for the Irish border, agreed in December, must be made legally binding.
The backstop option would mean alignment between the north and south for customs, VAT, energy, regulations for the protection of the environment and laws governing agriculture and fisheries. Northern Ireland would also have to adhere to EU rules on State Aid and would be under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in those aforementioned areas.
The backstop agreement was known as ‘Option C’ with regard to the Northern Irish border – one of three options laid out in the Joint Report agreed by the UK and the EU in December.
- With reporting by Rónán Duffy
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Tragic stupidity.
I sympathise for him & his family but seriously….what on earth was he thinking?
I climbed underneath a rollercoaster in Bray to get my hat back once. getting the hat back was more exciting than the ride itself. I was once Young and very stupid!!
Darwin award nominee.
“The man was either killed by the ride, or someone on it.” (sub headline)
Strange statement….care to explain how someone on the ride could have killed him?
Look at the design on the rollercoaster. It’s possible he was struck by the dangling leg of a rider.
Would they not have felt it?
You think a rider would know they’ve hit something or some one with their leg….perhaps suffer injury themselves… a broken leg perhaps?
I would have thought so, but the idea that it could have been someone on the ride comes from the investigating police.
Very vague police report….. “at least a few calls from people who might have witnessed something “???
Struck by either the rollercoaster or someone on it???
It’s all very probably!
The police seem disinterested, no one to shoot probably.
motoroller
Final Destination 087
Natural selection
RIP
what a Muppet. Ignorance of your own safety concerns is no excuse.
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