Bring on those thrilling trade talks, I hear you say.
The news from Brussels has brought the first phase of the Brexit talks to a "satisfactory conclusion," Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said this morning, although we should all remain cautious of a few more obstacles.
After a troubling Monday, when DUP leader Arlene Foster upset the initial hopes of creating a soft border between Ireland and the North by rejecting any "regulatory alignment" with the European Union, UK Prime Minister Theresa May and European CommissionerJean-Claude Juncker has calmed the nerves for now.
Speaking at a joint conference with Juncker, May said that she would "guarantee there will be no hard border."
Adding that the rights of the three million EU citizens living in the UK would have their rights "enshrined in UK law and enforced by British courts", she went on to say that without any "agreed solutions" the UK will "maintain full alignment with those rules of the internal market and the customs union, which... support north-south cooperation, the all-island economy and the protection of the 1998 agreement."
"[W]e will uphold the Belfast Agreement and in doing so we will continue to preserve the constitutional and economic integrity of the United Kingdom", she said.
Naturally, this has brought out a few people delighted to poke fun at the 'Brexit Means Brexit' crew.
https://twitter.com/sturdyAlex/status/939071597826146304
Turning the situation into that cliched moment of reflection in a rom-com, President of the European Council Donald Tusk said, "We all know breaking up is hard, but breaking up and building a new relationship is harder."
https://twitter.com/eucopresident/status/939044739680219136
Keeping the EU line of comparing this to a bad romantic movie, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker said, "sufficient progress has now been made on the strict terms of the divorce" allowing negotiations to move forward into the trade talks in phase 2. Still, he was happy enough to say a breakthrough was finally reached ahead of the EU Summit on 14 and 15 December.
For anyone who just didn't have enough metaphors, we got this...
https://twitter.com/MichelBarnier/status/939034950992478210
Some need to escape reality to cope with it properly.
In Leinster House, Leo Varadkar agreed, saying it was a "satisfactory conclusion", before attempting to stress to the Unionist community in the North that he recognised their concerns and had no "hidden agenda", which is a very diplomatic way of responding to Foster's accusation that those sly Republicans wanted to undermine the Good Friday Agreement.
That said, Leo wanted to put across the point that this was only Phase 1, hinting slightly at the fact we're not done yet in among the general 'We did it' remarks.
"We do not want to see a border in the Irish Sea, any more than we want to see a border between Newry and Dundalk or between Letterkenny and Derry. We want to build bridges, not borders. We want to free travel and free trade to continue as it does now and has done for 20 years."
https://twitter.com/campaignforleo/status/939049593047867392
Tánaiste Simon Coveney was a bit more excited in his response, having a bit of fun hammering home the Irish line by way of the Caps Lock button.
https://twitter.com/simoncoveney/status/939025279174959104
Up north, there was no comparable excitement to that of Coveney as the DUP issued their own statement, insisting while the news was good, "there is still more work to be done to improve the paper". More specifically, they remain a little irked about alignment and its exact definition.
https://twitter.com/SJAMcBride/status/939032614572142592
First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon remained frank as always, saying it's bad, but it's good essentially. The least enthusiastic of all participants, reminding everyone that she wishes Brexit wasn't a reality, once more, she made it clear that Scotland should be entitled to the same alignments given to Northern Ireland.
https://twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon/status/939034962187010049
It's hard not to love a cynical leader, really,
And now, let us all cheer as the second phase begins on trade, featuring all of the jargon and
hopefully a few more shots of Leo's mug.
