Latest: 'The future of the UK' is in Dublin, says Donald Tusk

Latest: EU council president Donald Tusk has strongly backed Ireland's demands for a concrete guarantee from Britain that there be no hard border in the event of Brexit, writes Juno McEnroe.

Latest: 'The future of the UK' is in Dublin, says Donald Tusk

Update: 5.24pm:EU council president Donald Tusk has strongly backed Ireland's demands for a concrete guarantee from Britain that there be no hard border in the event of Brexit, writes Juno McEnroe.

Mr Tusk met Taoiseach Leo Varadkar this evening and afterwards declared that "the future of the UK" was in Dublin.

Crucially though, he warned that if any offer or deal from London was not good enough for Ireland on the border issue, that it would be not good enough for the other 26 member states.

The statement, a significant endorsement of Ireland's position, comes ahead of a crucial deadline for British prime minister Theresa May who has until December 4 to offer a solution on the border question.

Speaking in Dublin this evening after meeting Mr Varadkar, Mr Tusk told media: "Let me say very clearly if the UK offer is unacceptable for Ireland, it will also be unnacceptable for the EU.”

The EU council president also said: “I came to Dublin to assure the Taoiseach and all the Irish people of Dublin that the EU is fully behind you and your request that there should be hard border on the island of Ireland after Brexit."

He said Britain's decision to leave the EU had created “uncertainty for millions of people” in Europe.

Brexit though could not be allowed destroy the cooperation that now existed across the whole if the island of Ireland.

Mr Tusk revealed that the two men had agreed today that Mr Tusk would consult with Mr Varadkar before any decision is made to move to the next Brexit negotiations phase, which will be formally decided upon at an EU summit in Brussels later this month.

Mrs May is hoping EU leaders will give the go-ahead for the second phase of the negotiations, including talks on a free trade deal, to begin at the European Council summit on December 14-15.

She is due to travel to Brussels on Monday for talks with European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in the hope of securing a declaration that "sufficient progress" has been made on divorce issues like the financial settlement and the Irish border.

The leaders of the remaining 27 EU states, including Mr Varadkar, have a veto on triggering the second phase of talks, meaning Mrs May must be sure of support from Dublin for progress to be made.

Mr Tusk confirmed Ireland would be consulted on whether the UK's offer was sufficient.

He added: "I realise that for some British politicians this may be hard to understand but such is the logic behind the fact that Ireland is an EU member while the UK is leaving."

The free-flowing and invisible border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland since the 1998 peace deal was enabled through the UK and Ireland's joint membership of the EU and its single market.

When the UK departs it raises the prospect of some form of customs barrier or else continued harmonisation on issues like duties on goods.

Ireland's proposal for no checkpoints could mean Northern Ireland sticking to the EU rulebook while the rest of the UK diverged, a red line for the Democratic Unionists who are propping up the UK Government.

Update: 4.49pm: The Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has met European Council President Donald Tusk in Dublin.

The two discussed Brexit and the progress made on the border issue in a bid to decide if negotiations can move ahead to the next stage.

The DUP have criticised the Government's approach to the border issue for being too aggressive.

However, the Tánaiste Simon Coveney says no individual party can decide the future of Northern Ireland.

He said: "We can't allow one party to dictate what's acceptable and what's not. Of course, the DUP have an important role to play in Westminster, but we have to decide in Dublin what is the right approach for the island of Ireland.

"Now don't forget that Northern Ireland did not vote to leave the EU, so there are broad and different views in Northern Ireland in terms of how we deal with this and we are listening to all of those views rather than just one party."

Update: 1.06pm: The Tánaiste says he does not want the border with the North to become 'a green vs orange' issue.

It is after DUP members said they would pull support for the British government if the North is treated differently to the rest of the UK in any Brexit deal.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and European Council President Donald Tusk are set to meet this afternoon, with tensions over the border rising.

Tánaiste and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney says the DUP need to work with everyone to find a solution to the border issue.

"I have tried, and I continue to try, to avoid this debate becoming a green versus orange issue in Northern Ireland," said Mr Coveney.

"Although it is very hard to prevent given some of the language we have heard.

"Our approach here is to listen to everybody. No one party has a monopoly in Northern Ireland in the context of what's acceptable and what's not."

Update 11.11am: Simon Coveney - 'We will listen to what everybody has to say in Northern Ireland'

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has said the Brexit negotiations need to find a solution for everyone.

His comments come after the DUP have said they would pull their support for the British Government if the North is given different treatment to the rest of the UK.

"I'm not going to get drawn into responding to comments by the DUP," said the new Tánaiste.

"We will listen to what everybody has to say in Northern Ireland. Regardless of where they come from, regardless of their community, regardless of their political party.

"The decisions that we are trying to ensure, are taken in the context of Brexit, need to be in the interests of everybody on the island of Ireland."

Update 9.16am: Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said Dublin was not willing to "leap into the dark" by accepting a move to the second phase of Brexit negotiations on the basis of vague assurances the border will be kept open.

He said in talks with the UK ahead of the December 14 summit, the Government wants to secure "an agreed wording whereby we can agree the parameters within which we can find a solution that prevents the re-emergence of the border on the island of Ireland and all the negative consequences that flow from that".

"We believe it's possible to do that," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "The area that we've focused in on is the need to give reassurance that there will not be regulatory divergence between the two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland, because if there is, then it is very hard to avoid a checking system.

"If you have different standards in terms of food safety, animal welfare, animal health, if you have different standards in relation to medical devices and the approval of drugs, how then can you maintain practical north/south co-operation as we have it today, if that regulatory divergence appears after Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK leaves the European Union."

Mr Coveney said the UK Government was "essentially saying `We will solve this problem, but not just now'".

But he said the reason why the Irish border issue was included in the first part of negotiations, alongside the UK's financial settlement and EU citizens' rights, was precisely "so that we can give reassurance in phase one that these problems can be solved in phase two".

He said: "What the British Government has been asking of the Irish Government is to just `trust us, we'll solve these issues with a broad, bold trade agreement'.

"But that may not be possible, we don't know. We can't be asked to leap into the dark by opening up phase two discussions in the hope that these issues might be resolved."

Meanwhile, former Northern Ireland first minister David Trimble said Simon Coveney should "go back and rethink what he's saying".

"We are going to leave the EU and one of the reasons for leaving it is to have our own say no what the regulatory framework for British industry is to be," the Conservative peer told Today.

"He is saying we should continue to be bound in all circumstances by the EU regulatory framework. What would then be the point of leaving?"

Mr Trimble said he backed a UK Government proposal to avoid the need for border checks by exempting smaller companies from tariffs when moving goods between the North and Ireland.

Ireland should ask Brussels to change EU law to relieve it of "the obligation to put infrastructure on the Irish side of the border", he said.

Earlier: Taoiseach to meet EU Council President; UK MPs warn return of border checks appear inevitable

The Taoiseach will meet with the President of the EU Council in Dublin today as Brexit talks intensify.

Both Donald Tusk and Leo Varadkar have floated the idea of the North staying in the customs union and the single market.

The meeting comes as British MPs warn that a return of border checks between the North and Ireland appears inevitable after Britain leaves the EU.

The Commons Exiting the EU Committee said it appeared impossible to reconcile the British Government's decision to pull out of the single market and the customs union with its declared intention to maintain a "frictionless" border.

It said the UK Government's proposals for dealing with the issue, including using technology to create a "light touch" border, were "untested and to some extent speculative".

"We do not currently see how it will be possible to reconcile there being no border with the Government's policy of leaving the single market and the customs union, which will inevitably make the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland the EU's customs border with the UK," the committee said.

But the report split the committee with four of the eight Conservatives present as well as the lone Democratic Unionist voting to reject it.

The findings echo the concerns of the government which has demanded a written guarantee from the UK that there will be no return to the "hard border" of the past as a result of Brexit.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has warned that without such an assurance, EU leaders will not give the green light for the second phase of the Brexit negotiations, including talks on a free trade deal, to begin at their summit on December 14 and 15.

In its report, the committee urged the British Government to begin work on ensuring the flow of goods in and out of the UK continued as freely as possible, regardless of whether there was a deal, including installing electronic customs checks and the construction of a lorry park at the Port of Dover.

But it added: "Such measures would not deal with all the risks of serious delays in Dover and would have to be reciprocated across the Channel in order to be effective."

The report also called on ministers to publish a white paper explaining how its proposed two-year transition period after the UK leaves the EU in March 2019 would work in practice.

It said any agreement between the UK and the EU on future citizens' right should be "ring-fenced" to ensure the status of EU nationals living in the UK and British nationals in the EU was guaranteed regardless of whether there was a wider deal.

One the four Tory Brexiteers who voted against the report, Craig Mackinlay rejected the suggestion that leaving the single market and the customs union would mean bringing back a "physical border infrastructure" between the North and Ireland.

"Of course, there has long been a VAT and currency border. Goods and services entailing cross-border transactions have paperwork and electronic filing to efficiently and effectively handle the different tax regimes," he said.

"If we end up with the World Trade Organisation model, for instance, I see no reason why it is not possible to add a customs tariff, if necessary under a no deal scenario."

The cross-party committee's chairman, Labour MP Hilary Benn, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Ministers say they don't want a border, they don't want any infrastructure. We all agree with that, but we didn't see, as a committee, how currently that can be reconciled with the Government's decision to leave the customs union and the single market.

"We call on the Government to set out more clearly how it is it thinks that this can work in practice, because it published its paper, which talks about two options - a highly streamlined customs arrangement ... a new customs arrangement with the European Union.

"It admits that its proposals are untested and at the moment it's not clear how this might work. But this is of fundamental importance."

He added: "Self-evidently, the Irish Government is not persuaded by what it has read so far."

Mr Benn said the committee continued to seek the full, unedited versions of Department for Exiting the EU analyses of the impact of Brexit on different sectors of the economy, which were handed over in redacted form earlier this week.

"That is what the House of Commons asked for," he told Today. "It said the material should be given to the Brexit select committee. It didn't say that the material should be edited or filleted in any way.

"It should be passed over and it should be the job of the committee - that's what we think - to decide what should be published."

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