Brexit: EU suggests 'common area' across NI border
01 March, 2018
The EU has proposed a "common regulatory area" on the island of Ireland if solutions cannot be found for the post-Brexit border.
Unveiling a draft legal agreement, EU negotiator Michel Barnier said this would be a "backstop" option and called on the UK to come up with alternatives.
He said the text was "no surprise" and was just a legally-worded assessment of what has been agreed so far.
But there has been criticism in the UK at the proposal for Northern Ireland.
The DUP's Westminster leader Nigel Dodds said his reaction to the publication was one of "amazement" that the EU thought it "could possibly fly with either us or the British government".
"We did not leave the European Union to oversee the breakup of the United Kingdom," he told the BBC, adding that it would be "catastrophic" for Northern Ireland to be "cut off" from UK markets.
Conservative Brexiteers have also said it is "completely unacceptable" and would effectively annex Northern Ireland.
There is also opposition to any role for the European Court of Justice after Brexit - the EU is proposing that disputes over the Brexit agreement in future years be settled by a "joint committee" which can refer to the EU's court for a binding decision.
Mr Barnier said the document contained "concrete and realistic solutions" in relation to the question of how to avoid a hard border once the UK leaves the EU's customs union.
Other options - a UK-EU deal that means checks are not needed and technological solutions - will also be explored.
Mr Barnier denied that the inclusion of the "backstop" option was designed to provoke the UK.
Media captionWill the bridge that unites the two villages be used to divide them?
Media captionWould you notice if you crossed the Irish border?
According to the draft text, it would involve an "area without internal borders in which the free movement of goods is ensured", covering customs, VAT, energy, agriculture, goods and other sectors.
The Irish government said this option was "very much a default and would only apply should it prove necessary".
Ireland's foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney said the publication was "another important step in the Brexit negotiations".