The European Union is ready to address key British concerns over Northern Ireland, the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier said on Tuesday, in a clear push to get a Brexit deal effectively done in the next month.
British Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday called on the European Union to strike a new deal to prevent a hard border in Northern Ireland and demanded Brussels quickly respond to her 'white paper' plan to avoid a damaging no-deal Brexit.
Ireland and the EU are very frustrated at the UK Government’s shifting positions on Brexit, the country’s deputy premier has said. In a special Brexit meeting taking place at Derrynane House in Co Kerry, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and his ministers will thrash out Brexit plans at the ancestral home of Irish political leader Daniel O’Connell.
Fresh doubts have been raised over Theresa May’s hopes for a deal on future relations with Europe, after reports that her proposals for the Irish border have been comprehensively rejected in Brussels. One report of a meeting this week between Britain’s lead negotiator Olly Robbins and senior EU officials suggested that the Prime Minister’s plans for avoiding a hard border with the Republic were subjected to “a systematic and forensic annihilation”.
The president of the European Commission has indicated that funding for Ireland's cross-border projects will continue after Brexit. Jean-Claude Juncker said he could see no more important use of the European budget than maintaining the peace process in Ireland. He was speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.