Ireland is frustrated by the delays in the ratification of the Brexit Agreement by the UK. „Of course there is frustration,“ Irish Deputy Prime Minister Simon Coveney said today after talks with his EU counterparts in Brussels.
„We do not yet know what the British government wants“
„We have less than 40 days until the United Kingdom officially leaves the European Union, and we still do not know what the British government really wants to get this deal ratified.“ His country spends hundreds of millions of euros to itself to prepare for a possible unregulated Brexit and to protect Irish citizens, Coveney said. „We do not want to do that. Of course we want a solution here, „he urged.
British Prime Minister Theresa May hopes to get the exit agreement agreed with Brussels in November with a few minor changes from the House of Commons. However, EU members continue to insist on a guarantee that a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland will be prevented, as Coveney emphasized.
At the vote in January, Parliament had insisted on reworking. The main issue is the „backstop“, with which the EU wants to prevent a hard border between the British province of Northern Ireland and the EU member Ireland. For the Brexit hardliners, the catch-up solution is a thorn in the side: they fear that Britain would remain bound to the EU for an indefinite period of time.
