Addressing representatives of the world of business from the whole of Europe on Wednesday 10 October, the EU chief negotiator on Brexit, Michel Barnier, described in detail the necessary measures to be taken to avoid a return to a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
As the United Kingdom is to leave the single market of the EU and customs union, new checks must be imposed on goods transiting between the European Union and the United Kingdom.
These involve "customs and VAT checks", as well as compliance checks with EU standards in order to protect consumers, merchants and businesses, Barnier explained.
These checks will not take place on the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, both sides have agreed.
As regards customs and VAT controls, companies established in Great Britain will make online statements before sending their goods to Northern Ireland, with the only visible checks to take place in British ports or on ferries heading for Northern Ireland.
"These arrangements already exist within EU member states", in particular those with islands, such as between Spain and the Canary Islands, Barnier pointed out.
For regulatory checks on industrial goods, for instance, these checks may be carried out in the premises of companies in Northern Ireland.
The real difference compared to the current situation would concern health and phytosanitary checks for live animals and products of animal origin.
"EU rules are clear: such checks must happen at the border because of food safety and animal health reasons", said Barnier, adding that "obviously, in the future the island of Ireland must remain a single epidemiologic area".
The EU negotiator stressed that "such checks already exist in the ports of Larne and Belfast", in Northern Ireland. After Brexit, however, these health and phytosanitary checks will have to cover all goods concerned, whereas they are currently carried out on 10% of live animals and products of animal origin. This would "involve a significant change in terms of scale", Barnier agreed.
To justify these measures, the former French foreign affairs minister stressed that Brexit was a sovereign decision of the UK, the negative effects of which must be curtailed as much as possible. Furthermore, these measures are limited to the minimum required to avoid a return to a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and do not include any measures related to the free movement of people or services or any measure of a social or environmental order. Finally, it is a 'backstop' solution, to apply if no better solution can be found during the post-Brexit period, when the EU and the UK will negotiate their future relationship.
Barnier also highlighted the benefits Northern Ireland will enjoy, the like of which have never before been granted to the territory of a third country. As well as access to the electricity market of the EU, Northern Ireland will have access to the single market and benefit from the free-trade agreements signed off by the EU with its trade partners throughout the world.
The EU negotiator also explained why the EU could not, for reasons related to the integrity of the single market, accept the British offer set out in the Chequers action plan of July 2018.
His speech can be consulted at: https://bit.ly/2IOYxZr. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)