Commission confirms no-deal Brexit will see hard border in Ireland
Welcome to Northern Ireland? Maybe not if it’s a No Deal Brexit.
By Bill Heaney
In a no-deal Brexit scenario “you will have a hard border” in Ireland, a spokesman for the European Commission said today.
The admission is the first time the commission has explicitly acknowledged the reality that, despite the often expressed desire of Dublin and London to maintain a soft, friction-less border, a hard border is inevitable in the absence of a deal.
A commission source insisted the statement did not reflect a change of position by the commission but was merely “a statement of the obvious”.
Commission spokesman Margaritis Schinas was responding at the daily press briefing to journalists’ questions about what no-deal planning assumptions were being made for the Irish Border.
He declined to say whether the commission planned to publish a specific Irish “preparedness” note in line with the many published about other aspects of no-deal.
For months now journalists have been asking the commission, the UK, and Irish Government spokespeople what would happen on the Border in the event of a no-deal.
The commission has refused to answer the question while the two governments have expressed their determination not to return to a hard border, without explaining how they would achieve that end. https://wordpress.com/post/democratonline.net/11895