Brexit : If UKs offer on the Border is unacceptable to Ireland it will be unacceptable to the EU

[OnDoutside]

Donald Tusk firmly supports Ireland in Brexit negotiations

The President of the European Council Donald Tusk has weighed his support firmly behind Ireland in the Brexit negotiations, saying if the United Kingdom’s offer on the Border “is unacceptable to Ireland it will be unacceptable to the EU”. Mr Tusk met Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in Dublin on Friday ahead of next Monday’s deadline for British prime minister Theresa May to submit her Government’s final offer for the three issues in phase one of Brexit negotiations.

In a brief media appearance with Mr Varadkar after the meeting, Mr Tusk offered support for Ireland that was much more robust than anticipated. In effect, he said that the EU would give Ireland the right to effectively veto any offer on the Border that is being offered by Mrs May.

“We agreed today that before proposing guidelines on transition and future relations I will consult the Taoiseach on [whether or not] the UK offer is sufficient for the Irish Government. “Let me say very clearly if the UK offer is unacceptable for Ireland it will be unacceptable for the EU,” he said.

He said that such a strong position might be hard for British politicians to understand but the fact was that Ireland remained an EU member while the UK was leaving.

The newly appointed Tánaiste said that Brexit negotiations could not move on to second-phase discussions on the future EU-UK relations without assurances on the future of the Border and “a more creditable understanding of the parameters within which we are going to solve the Border issues in phase two.” “That is all we are asking for and that is why we raised issues like the need to avoid regulatory divergence between the two jurisdictions on the island if we are going to have north-south cooperation that functions in the future,” he told the media after speaking in a public interview at an event hosted by Facebook.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/donald-tusk-firmly-supports-ireland-in-brexit-negotiations-1.3312032