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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Irish border issue causing a headache in Brussels

Andy-Jalil
Andy-Jalil
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With time moving on fast to Brexit day on 29 March, the Irish border question continues to dominate debate and is holding up the ratification of the withdrawal agreement. The UK doesn’t want a hard border. Ireland doesn’t want a hard border.


The EU doesn’t want a hard border. You would be forgiven for wondering who is actually going to build it in case of a “no deal”. And none of the three parties involved in the border issue wants a “no deal” either. That is the complexity of the matter.


Yet it seemed at one stage recently that Brussels was prepared to say the unsayable and admit that in order to protect the integrity of the Single Market and customs union – neither of which the hard Brexiteers want – there would be need to be a hard border (with stringent checks being carried out) on the crossing if the UK leaves without a deal.


A report in the Irish Independent had said that Ireland was drawing up plans to deploy hundreds of police officers to guard the border with Northern Ireland in the case of a no-deal Brexit.


The report said the plan was discussed at a meeting held by the Police Commissioner and senior officials. The report added to contradictory signals over what Dublin will have to do if Britain crashes out of the European Union without a deal to avoid a hard border for customs checks.


A European Commission spokesman said that it was “obvious” a no-deal Brexit would result in a hard Irish border, causing a flurry in Dublin which has refused to countenance the idea.


About 600 police officers would be required to man border crossings along the 311-mile frontier, said the report. A notice was issued seeking volunteers for secondments of six to twelve months.


Police on both sides of the border have warned that customs posts could be a target for militant groups. The Irish government has stated it has not carried out any plans for physical infrastructure at the border.


The European Commission has already stated that in the event of a disorderly Brexit “every consignment of live animals and animal products – as in the case with other goods – coming from the UK would have to undergo checks in border inspection posts at the point of entry to the EU.”


“If you’d like to push me and speculate on what might happen in a no-deal scenario in Ireland,” European Commission spokesperson, Margaritis Schinas, told journalists: “I think it’s pretty obvious: you will have a hard border.”


But a day later the EU had gone into a hard reverse, with its chief negotiator Michel Barnier telling Members of European Parliament (MEPs), “we’ll have to find an operational way of carrying out checks and controls without putting back in place a border.”


The Irish government has consistently and repeatedly ruled out constructing a border.


A spokesperson for Ireland’s Prime Minister was clear, “we will not accept a hard border on this island and therefore we are not planning for one.” Indeed, the Irish press have reported that far from the customs border being moved into the Irish sea, it could be moved to the English Channel, with Calais being designated as the location of any checks and controls on goods from both the UK and Ireland.


UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, has repeatedly said she will do everything she can to avoid putting up infrastructure on the frontier. In fact, such is her desire to avoid a hard border she steered the government to an historic defeat as her Brexit deal encompassed the much-hated backstop plan. It is surely time for all sides to bend a little.


Brussels could push for a five-year limit clause on the backstop, espoused by Poland’s foreign minister recently. Ireland could accept that an open-ended backstop is not something many in the UK could ever sign up to. Brexiteers need to understand the desire for an insurance policy from their Irish neighbours.


Given that the key protagonists have ruled out a hard border in the event of a no-deal, there must be some way of ruling one out as part of the deal that’s currently on the table. If that can get sorted, then both sides can move on to the important task of negotiating a future trading relationship.


(The author is our foreign correspondent based in the UK. He can be reached at andyjalil@aol.com)


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