The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator has warned Irish politicians that Britain’s departure from the bloc “will have consequences” in an address to their parliament.
“Today, in front of these two houses, I want to reassure the Irish people: in this negotiation Ireland’s interest will be the [European] Union’s interest,” said Michel Barnier, a former French foreign minister and European Commissioner.
“We are in this negotiation together and a united EU will be here for you,” he added.
However, the Frenchman was clear the EU has “a duty to speak the truth [and] the UK’s departure from the EU will have consequences”.
Specifically, he warned that “customs controls are part of EU border management. They protect the single market. They protect our food safety and our standards.”
The United Kingdom remains the major trading partner of the Irish Republic, which will have the EU’s only land border with Britain after Brexit. Its government is therefore very much against the EU reimposing customs controls along the frontier with Northern Ireland.
Barnier suggested that Brussels would be open to considering “flexible and creative” solutions to the customs issue, but said these would have to “respect the integrity of the EU legal order”.
“We have to use our combined strength,” he said, “and deliver solutions that benefit all member-states.”
Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams, who believes Brexit is an opportunity for Ulster to be removed from the United Kingdom and incorporated into the Republic, took the opportunity to call on Barnier to grant the Province a “special status” which would keep it inside the European Union.
The Belfast-born politician, said to have been “an extremely senior member” of the terrorist IRA organisation by former members, has previously stated the only Brexit his party wishes to see “is a British withdrawal from [Ulster]”.
His party has demanded a border poll on unification, but the Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) said he believes this is the wrong time a vote in his address to Barnier.
The last such referendum was held in 1973, and saw voters back remaining in the United Kingdom by 98.9 per cent, on a turnout of 58.66 per cent.