04 October 2018

Financial Times: Ireland backs Theresa May’s plan for all-UK customs union with EU

Ahead of a crucial EU summit this month, the British prime minister is seeking to resolve a dispute over the “backstop” to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.

One of the proposals she is working on — to take effect if no other solution to the Irish border issue is found — is for the whole UK to participate in a customs union with the EU.

Michel Barnier, chief EU negotiator, has rejected the idea but officials in Dublin privately argue it could settle the border question and open the way to a deal. “It looks like it would resolve that issue [of the border],” said a senior Irish official involved in Brexit talks. “Whether Europe accept it or not is another conversation.”

The Irish intervention will help Mrs May in the run-up to the EU summit on October 18 as she attempts a delicate diplomatic docking exercise on Brexit. The prime minister may have more freedom to manoeuvre, now that her ruling Conservative party has concluded its conference.

If the UK is accepting a customs union, what are they leaving? If effectively they accept the customs union, they’re not leaving anything really Irish government official She will offer to meet the EU half way on the vexed issue of the Irish backstop, agreeing to Brussels’ demands that Northern Ireland stay part of the single market regulatory area of the bloc.

But, in return, she wants the EU to concede to Britain’s demands that under the backstop plan the whole UK, rather than just Northern Ireland, would stay in the customs union for a limited period until a UK-EU trade deal was finalised.

The “temporary” extension of the customs union would prevent Northern Ireland being carved off from the rest of the UK into a separate EU customs territory. Some British ministers expect the arrangement might in practice extend well into the next decade.  [...]

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