Nicola Sturgeon has said Scotland and Ireland are allies in the Brexit negotiations. Scotland's first minister told business leaders in Dublin she will argue for the Irish border to remain open in the wake of the UK's split from Europe. She added the Republic and Scotland were united on virtually every issue of substance relating to Brexit.
Brexit divorce talks have so far made insufficient progress to allow starting negotiations on a post-withdrawal trade deal, Ireland's Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said after meeting British prime minister Theresa May in Downing Street. But Mr Varadkar stressed that there was still time for the situation to be resolved before the 27 remaining EU members make a decision on the matter in October.
The European Parliament's Brexit negotiator, Guy Verhofstadt, has said it is up to the UK to find a way to avoid new controls on the Irish border, which echoes the position already laid out by the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier. Mr. Verhofstadt is in Northern Ireland to meet political leaders at Stormont ahead of a visit to the Irish border.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has called for unique solutions to preserve the relationship between the UK and the European Union after Brexit. On his first official visit to Northern Ireland, he raised the possibility of a bilateral UK-EU customs union, and described Brexit as the challenge of this generation.
Ireland is against the imposition of an economic border with Northern Ireland and the Irish government is not going to help Britain design one, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Friday.
The Bank of America announced Friday that Dublin will be the new base for its European Union operations following Britain’s decision last year to split from the EU. Brian Moynihan, CEO of the Charlotte-based bank, made the announcement during a trip to the Irish capital city. It becomes the latest large U.S. bank in recent weeks to disclose plans for continuing to serve clients in EU countries following the so-called Brexit vote in 2016.