Pinning down border issues creates tension between sides in Brexit talks

The determination of EU negotiators to put into “unambiguous” legal language the UK’s commitment to no “hard” border on the island of Ireland has provoked sharp disagreements between negotiators for both sides. A measure, some say, of “buyer’s remorse” on the UK’s part over commitments it made in December.

EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier told journalists in Brussels on Friday – at the end of a week of renewed Brexit talks – that the EU’s task force in preparing the text of the withdrawal agreement based on the December phase-one agreement had to “start legally defining how the scenario would work in operational terms”, in effect continued membership of the customs union for the North.

“There must be no ambiguity here,” he insisted, warning again that they were running out of time.

He said the UK had committed to three possible border scenarios in December, two of which depended on the “future relationship” talks which have yet to begin, and therefore could not be part of a withdrawal agreement.

To give certainty – and though he did not state it explicitly, to prevent UK backsliding on the commitments – “it is our responsibility to include the third option in the text of the withdrawal agreement to guarantee there would be no hard border, whatever the circumstances”.