May calls for 'calm heads' on Irish border

UK prime minister Theresa May said this Monday that "two problems remain" in finding an agreement with the EU over the Irish border and achieving an overall Brexit deal.

Yet, she added: "I do not believe the UK and the EU are far apart."

Mrs May was addressing the House of Commons after negotiations failed to deliver an agreement on Sunday and ahead of a meeting of EU leaders later this week.

Details

According to her, the EU says there is no time to work out the details of a UK-wide so-called backstop to ensure no hard border in Ireland in the coming weeks.

The second problem is that the EU wants a Northern Ireland-only solution to be the fall-back option. This would mean checks between NI and Britain; Mrs May rejected this.

We are not going to be trapped permanently in a single customs territory unable to do meaningful trade deals

With the option of a UK-wide backstop the only one on the table from the British perspective, Mrs May insisted that it must be limited in time.

"I am clear we are not going to be trapped permanently in a single customs territory unable to do meaningful trade deals," she said.

This clarifies the British position as follows at this point: if there is no agreement on the future relationship between the UK and the EU, the British government is prepared to keep applying EU rules to the UK as a whole to avoid a hard border in Ireland – but only for a limited time.

"We are entering the final stages of these negotiations," she said, adding that she believed a deal was achievable.

"This is the time for cool, calm heads to prevail."

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