The European Parliament will never approve a withdrawal agreement with the United Kingdom which does not contain a satisfactory solution for the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, stated MEP Terry Reintke (Greens/EFA, Germany) on Tuesday 27 March after visiting Dublin and Belfast last week.
During her visit, Reintke met stakeholders and NGOs concerned about the fate of programmes backed by EU specific funding under the peace process in Northern Ireland and worried about proposed alternative financing.
What struck Reintke during her visit was that some of the people she met felt that they had “been abandoned” and that they were more of a “burden” than citizens “with rights”. In the MEP’s view, the UK government must abandon its ambiguity on this issue and stop “deliberately” leaving people in a state of uncertainty. She did, however, express optimism that, with regard to possible options, the UK government would, at the end of the process, accept the so-called backstop solution, which would see Northern Ireland maintain regulatory alignment with single market and customs union rules.
Technical meetings are scheduled to take place in Brussels this week and throughout the month of April to try reach agreement on the Irish border issue. Last week, UK Prime Minister Theresa May once again undertook in writing to avoid any physical border between the two Irelands and fully to respect the Good Friday Agreement and North-South cooperation.
On 23 March, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar repeated the wish that a solution be found before June’s European summit or by October at the latest, at the end of the negotiations on the withdrawal agreement. The European Commission proposed a “safety net” on 28 February that would allow a large number of sectors (state aid, environmental standards and more) in a single regulatory area with Ireland, mirroring European rules. May says this solution is unacceptable. Her government has, however, repeated its commitment to the 8 December joint report which authorises regulatory alignment in some sectors but the UK has indicated a desire to re-draft the terms of this backstop position. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)