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Britain PM set for talks with European Union official Donald Tusk

March 31, 2018 10:21·
Michelle O'Neill and Arlene Foster

Michelle O'Neill and Arlene Foster

The bank, which has large operations in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, wants to know what sort of relationship there will be in their border once the United Kingdom officially leaves the European Union in March 2019.

The publication by European Union negotiators Wednesday of a voluminous draft legal document meant to formalize an almost-completed divorce deal struck between London and Brussels in December has prompted a furious rejection from the British government, risking possible near fatal delay to planned second-phase talks on Britain's future trading relationship with the bloc.

"The EU wants to prevent this scenario", Tusk said in a statement, as quoted by the council's press service. This insurance option in effect puts the UK-EU border in the Irish sea, a plan that is anathema to the Democratic Unionist party that is propping up May government.

He said: "The government has had 20 months to come up with a workable proposal for avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland". He said Britain would not finalise any payments to the European Union until "all of the issues" concerning Britain have been resolved.

With both Brussels and Dublin saying they are willing to look at alternatives to the backstop option, in other words the common regulatory area, observers will be looking closely for detail that will be both politcally and legally acceptable to the EU, given its determination to protect the integrity of the single market and customs union.

May insisted there was no disagreement with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on the Irish border question.

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The intervention came just hours before Tusk was due to meet Theresa May at 10 Downing Street.

She warned: "No UK prime minster could ever agree to it". He urged MPs in parliament to get a free vote on the final deal.

He added that the Government's position of "ambitious managed divergence" with the European Union, which was agreed at a special meeting of the Brexit "war cabinet" sub-committee last week, was the best way forward.

Speaking on a visit to see key figures on the EU side of the negotiations, Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, said Labour's clear commitment to negotiate a new customs union arrangement and a deal on access to the single market had been welcomed in Brussels.

Remaining in the single market or customs union would require continued free movement of migrants and adherence to EU rules, which critics argue goes against the wishes of Brexit voters and are a hurdle to Britain s ability to sign global trade deals. "The British governing system has evolved differently; it is a workable fudge that hardly makes sense at all".

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