The British PM committed once again to the December Agreement.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and British Prime Minister Theresa May held a bilateral meeting on Thursday afternoon in Brussels to discuss, amongst other things, the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic following Brexit.
The Taoiseach went in hoping to agree guidelines of some sort on the future relationship between the EU and UK at this week’s European Council summit of leaders.
The Irish government has insisted that the UK provides a “cast-iron guarantee” to ensure that neither a physical infrastructure is to be built along the border nor border-checks or controls are to be held post-Brexit.
The draft text of a withdrawal treaty includes an agreement that there must be a backstop solution to ensure there no hard border is to be found on the island of Ireland if no other answers come about.
With no other solution set in stone, it’s understood that Northern Ireland would continue to follow EU regulations. However, the vast majority of details around how the border arrangements will operate following withdrawal have not yet been agreed.
The two politicians met today in Brussels to discuss post-Brexit solutions, with Varadkar taking to Twitter after the conversation to inform the masses on the topics of conversation.
Caught up with British PM Theresa May this evening at @EUCouncil to talk Brexit, Northern Ireland, Russia, and also briefly rugby. She committed again to December agreement. Detailed discussions start next week on EU/UK future relationship with focus on Ireland pic.twitter.com/b5nYx7ohjF
— Leo Varadkar (@LeoVaradkar) March 22, 2018
Varadkar’s tweet wrote:
“Caught up with British PM Theresa May this evening at EU Council to talk Brexit, Northern Ireland, Russia, and also briefly rugby. She committed again to December agreement. Detailed discussions start next week on EU/UK future relationship with focus on Ireland”
The pair will also meet on Friday to further set in stone Northern Ireland’s post-Brexit plans.
Mr Varadkar said: “On Friday we will meet in Article 50 format to discuss the Brexit negotiations.
“This is an important moment in the Article 50 negotiations and it is hoped that we can agree guidelines on the future relationship between the EU and the UK.
“I am pleased that the UK has now agreed that a backstop solution to avoid a hard border proposed in December, will form part of the legal text, and that all the issues identified by the EU side in the draft will be addressed, to deliver a legally sound solution to avoid a hard border on our island.
“Prime Minister May confirmed this in a letter to (European Council) President (Donald) Tusk on Monday.”
Under a deal reached between the EU and the UK back in December, Britain pledged that – in the absence of any other feasible solution – Northern Ireland would remain aligned to the rules of the EU’s customs union and single market in order to avoid a hard border and to protect the North-South dimension of the Good Friday Agreement.
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