The difference could be that the EC wants this electronic border is to be placed between NI and mainland UK, in the middle of the Irish sea, and not between Eire and NI. Nevertheless, the major obstacle might be a lot closer to a solution.
However, as a letter in the Times from leading ERG members notes:
the practical ideas for controls that take place away from the border, which are now apparently being considered by Brussels, could equally well be applied to the land border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland....This is in line with what European Research Group MPs set out in our paper published last week. If the EU accepts this principle, it should resolve their needless fear that a drive-through customs frontier with the Republic of Ireland is a threat to the integrity of the single market....It therefore also removes the imperative behind the Chequers proposals, which require the UK to accept many EU rules and which therefore do not “take back control”. The way should be open for the government to return to their original plan for a “Canada-plus” free trade agreement, offered by the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, in March.
They had better not make this point too loudly, however, or matters of face-saving will be involved too and we will be in for months more prevarication and insatiability.
We shall see whether it is the substance or the symbolism of the customs problem that is the obstacle for the EC. At the moment, the EC seems to want additional constitutional change in the UK, to treat NI differently from the rest of the Union (rather like their implied request for a written constitution in the blog below). Face-saving? Another punishment for leaving? Another reason to demand further concessions? Bureaucratic imperialism that must subject everything to its absurd formulae?
No comments:
Post a Comment