EU’s chief Brexit negotiator Barnier urges Britain to speed up talks as draft treaty stokes Ireland border row
He called on Prime Minister Theresa May to ‘pick up the pace’ of negotiations so that a withdrawal treaty, including terms for keeping the status quo during a two-year transition period, could be agreed this autumn
The European Union could maintain much of its sway in Northern Ireland after Brexit under a draft treaty published on Wednesday that caused anger in London and Belfast as the EU warned time was running out for a deal.
Brussels’ chief negotiator Michel Barnier denied that the proposal for avoiding a disruptive EU-UK “hard border” on the island of Ireland would loosen Northern Ireland’s constitutional ties to the rest of the United Kingdom and stressed he was open to other solutions to the border dilemma that Britain may offer.
“Daily life around the border should continue as today,” Barnier told reporters as the European Commission published its draft withdrawal treaty.
However, he rammed home that “time is short” before Britain will be out of the EU in exactly 13 months. He called on Prime Minister Theresa May to “pick up the pace” of negotiations so that a withdrawal treaty, including terms for keeping the status quo during a two-year transition period, could be agreed this autumn to be ratified by parliaments before next March.
He repeated that the EU is “preparing for every situation” in case no deal is struck and the continent’s second-biggest economy lurches chaotically out of the Union after 46 years.