Ireland will not be ‘pawn’ in Brexit talks

LONDON: Ireland warned on Wednesday it would not be used as a "pawn" in British attempts to force the pace of Brexit negotiations, after London unveiled its plans for the fraught Irish border issue.

Brussels has refused to start talks on future trading ties with Britain until certain priority issues are resolved, including how the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland will be managed after Brexit.

But London says the issue of how goods and people will move across the frontier cannot be separated from discussion about wider customs arrangements between Britain and the European Union.

This argument was made clear in a new position paper on the Irish border issue published Wednesday, ahead of a new round of negotiations in Brussels later this month. "Our dialogue should, at the earliest opportunity, focus in particular on the issues most critical to delivering as frictionless and seamless a border as possible: customs arrangements, and checks and processes on particular goods," the paper said.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney welcomed the "much needed clarity" provided by the paper, in particular the commitment to upholding the Northern Ireland peace process and retaining freedom of movement across the border. But he told reporters in Dublin: "We are not going to be used as a pawn here in any bigger negotiation."

The Sinn Fein party’s Northern Ireland leader Michelle O’Neill accused the British government of "a disgraceful attempt to play politics and exploit the EU’s commitment to our peace process in order to further their own ends".

People and goods currently move freely across the Irish border but there are concerns that, as Britain’s only land frontier with the EU, this cannot be sustained after Brexit in March 2019. Britain on Wednesday repeated its commitment to avoiding physical customs infrastructure, and to maintain the century-old Common Travel Area which allows British and Irish citizens to move freely back and forth.

Arlene Foster, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, the largest party in Northern Ireland, said the paper represented a "common-sense approach". But in Dublin, Coveney warned there are "still many unanswered questions", repeating Ireland’s position that the best option would be for Britain to stay in the EU’s customs union and single market.

The document came the day after Britain published its proposals for future customs arrangements with the EU. But Coveney said some of these were "totally unworkable", while the European response was equally derisory.

The European Commission warned that "frictionless trade is not possible outside the single market and customs union". Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator, added: "To be in and out of the customs union and ‘invisible borders’ is a fantasy."

Britain also confirmed it would be seeking to negotiate a "temporary customs union" to provide continuity for businesses until it agrees a full trade deal with the EU.