Government stands firm on Brexit backstop border agreement
The Government is standing firm behind the backstop agreement for the border as the possibility increases of a no-deal Brexit.
With EU-British talks continuing at a slow pace, British Brexit secretary Dominic Raab this week put forward a series of papers which include contingency plans in the event of a ‘hard’ Brexit.
However, one of the main issues the papers failed to fully address was the Irish border, with the documents simply stating that “full account” will be taken around the “unique circumstances of Northern Ireland” if Britain does crash out of the EU.
Commenting on the latest papers, a spokesman for Tánaiste Simon Coveney said: “UK contingency planning is a matter for the UK. The Cabinet here in July made a number of decisions putting our contingency planning into an implementation stage including the hiring of 1,000 customs and agricultural inspectors for East-West trade.
It should never be forgotten that Ireland will continue to enjoy the benefits of our EU membership after Brexit. Everyone’s focus, though, should be on getting a deal on a sensible Brexit which must include the Irish backstop agreed last December.
The EU and UK are now under pressure to hammer out a deal before October’s crunch EU Council Summit, where leaders are due to sign off on the deal.
However, British cabinet minister David Lidington yesterday strongly indicated that negotiating teams will not meet the deadline.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today, he said that extending the deadline to November would be “manageable” and the EU would not have a problem in scheduling an emergency meeting.
It came after Mr Barnier suggested the EU no longer sees the October summit as the deadline for agreement
