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BRITISH PRIME MINISTER Theresa May has published the UK’s plan for future ties with the European Union after Brexit just days after it prompted high-profile resignations from her cabinet.
May wrote in a foreword to the controversial policy paper, which calls for a free trade area and common rules with the EU for goods, that reaching a Brexit agreement with Brussels “requires pragmatism and compromise from both sides”.
Although the paper was initially described as a ‘soft Brexit’, the paper does propose taking the UK out of the single market, ending free movement of people, and ending the oversight of the European Court of Justice in the UK.
It also proposes a common regulations agreement on goods, agri-food and fisheries in order to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.
The new Brexit secretary Dominic Raab announced the White Paper’s publication in the House of Commons just before 1pm, causing uproar among MPs who were “furious” that they hadn’t been given copies of it beforehand.
The speaker said that there was “considerable unhappiness” on both sides of the House that Raab was giving a statement on a Brexit paper that they hadn’t been given an opportunity to read yet.
He added that he won’t take points of order during the statement, but he waived a rule that would have prevented MPs who leave during the statement of asking a question.
So what does it say about Ireland?
A lot of the rhetoric used by Theresa May and most of her government in relation to Ireland and a possible border are repeated in the White Paper:
Taken together, such a partnership would see the UK and the EU meet their commitments to Northern Ireland and Ireland through the overall future relationship: preserving the constitutional and economic integrity of the UK; honouring the letter and the spirit of the Belfast (‘Good Friday’) Agreement; and ensuring that the operational legal text the UK will agree with the EU on the ‘backstop’ solution as part of the Withdrawal Agreement will not have to be used.
The paper speaks of establishing a free trade area for goods between the EU and the UK, which in theory would avoid a hard border.
It would avoid the need for a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, without harming the internal market of the UK – doing so in a way that fully respects the integrity of the EU’s Single Market, Customs Union, and its rules-based framework.
This includes an agreement on agri-food and fisheries regulations, which would “remove the need to undertake additional regulatory checks at the border – avoiding the need for any physical infrastructure”.
This would, however, mean that the UK would have to adopt the EU’s rules on all goods, a proposal that most Brexiteers turn their nose up at.
The White Paper claims that the arrangement “would protect the uniquely integrated supply chains and ‘just-in-time’ processes that have developed across the UK and the EU over the last 40 years, and will remain important given our geographical proximity, and the jobs and livelihoods dependent on them”.
Although the “country of origin” principle – where a company based in one EU country can broadcast into any other member state – will no longer apply, the UK’s commitments to the provision of Irish language broadcasting in Northern Ireland by RTE and TG4, as set out in the Belfast (“Good Friday”) Agreement will be guaranteed, the White Paper said.
But the White Paper doesn’t include a shared agreement on services and investment – as London is eager to protect its valuable services industry and doesn’t want to see the EU overseeing it through an authority in which it has no input (the European Courts of Justice).
It says that a new services arrangement will provide “regulatory flexibility, recognising that the UK and the EU will not have current levels of access to each other’s markets”.
Catherine McGuinness, head of policy for the City of London Corporation, said the proposals represented a “real blow” for finance firms.
With looser trade ties to Europe, the financial and related professional services sector will be less able to create jobs, generate tax and support growth across the wider economy. It’s that simple.
Irish government’s response
The publication of the White Paper, eagerly awaited by the European Union and the Irish government, was thrown into doubt earlier this week after the UK’s chief negotiator David Davis resigned, followed shortly by Foreign Secretary and prominent Brexiteer Boris Johnson.
Reacting to the news of its publication this afternoon, a government spokesperson said:
“The government welcomes the publication of the detailed White Paper on the future EU-UK relationship. We will consult with our EU lead negotiator Michel Barnier and his team and our other EU partners.
We hope the publication of the White Paper can inject momentum into negotiations and want to see the closest possible relationship between the EU and the UK. However, time is running out.
In terms of the Withdrawal Agreement, nothing is agreed until everything is agreed, and it must contain a legally operable backstop.
“We look forward to negotiations intensifying over coming weeks. But equally, contingency preparations for all possible outcomes will intensify further.”
The British Irish Chamber of Commerce welcomed the document’s publication, adding that “there are many elements which will need refinement but the basis for a workable outcome are now on the table”.
John McGrane, its director general said:
The proposed free trade in goods is vital for all, especially our shared agri-food sector. But we cannot afford to end free trade in all services simply because some sectors might reject the EU’s rules. Services account for more jobs and are vital to enabling all trade.
Theresa May is due to meet US President Donald Trump today as he visits the UK.
Earlier, Trump seemed to criticise May’s White Paper at a press conference following a heated Nato summit:
“The people voted to break it up (Britain’s ties with the EU).
So I would imagine that’s what they will do, but maybe they will take a little bit of a different route. I don’t know (if) that is what they voted for.
- with reporting from AFP
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Fair play to the Irish government. They have done a great job steering the ship.
@Sean Minihane: Only since July 2021
@Paul Hedderman: yup, all the planing just magically appeared in July.
@Tony Gordon: Vaccine rollout aside did they really do a good job “steering the ship” in your opinion?
@Paul Hedderman: yes they did, in my opinion. Their 2 biggest missteps was not planning sufficiently for nursing homes at the very beginning, which in fairness every country got wrong. And then reopening in December at the beginning of the Delta outbreak. Aside from that we have done very well, far better than most of Europe.
@Ger: Delaying locking down for the first lockdown when other European States were locking down around us and covid confirmed a few weeks prior. No engagement with highly effected sectors. Lack of communication to public, conflicting information, leaks. Conflicting rules. Not allowing businesses to open sooner when they could operate safely. Only telling us socialising outdoors was safe just before the summer when it suited their agenda. Not preparing schools properly. Not implementing mass rapid testing, to name but a few…….. Re christmas (UK variant) they had to ease restrictions, public would have gone mad and ignored them if they didnt, that wave was inevitable as it started weeks before easing, with new variant, Christmas and 2 months of level 5 prior it was the perfect storm.
@Sean Minihane: RTE will be disgusted. They are still trying to stir it.
It has been a remarkable achievement. Let’s hope it continues.
All the overly dramatic commenters posting ‘open the pubs’ on here every day for the past 18months should have a look at that Bloomberg article and see how much more restrictive the lockdowns were in other European countries.
@Niels: Exactly, imagine your priority in the middle of a pandemic being whether the pubs are open or not , a horribly negative benchmark to use.
@Niels: only 5 European countries on the list higher than us for restrictions, 6 if you include Turkey…… We’re only in the top 10 in that chart of only 53 countries since mid summer. Article is titled “The Best and Worst Places to Be as We Learn to Live With Delta”…. Not “countries have performed the best through the whole pandemic”…. Vaccine rollout was a great success. Handling of the first year and a bit of it was shocking by govt, particularly the start… I’d take that report with a pinch of salt. Our universal healthcare score is 90 somehow and I wonder how much weight GDP growth forecast goes towards the rank. Hard to see how were better than Denmark when they have more vaxd, better healthcare, less restrictions, nearly half the cases and deaths compared to us since delta.
@Paul Hedderman: they also don’t share a border with the UK who have been a disaster throughout the pandemic, that’s a massive point going in their favour
@Paul Hedderman: I don’t understand how we managed to knock Norway off the top spot to tell the truth, As John just pointed out to you, we share a land border with the UK, but Norway shares with Sweden and when you compare those two, the difference is purely due to the difference in the paths taken by the authorities of both countries.
@Paul Hedderman: Sorry, hit wrong key. Anyway, that said, I’ve no issue with our government’ response, and as to various comments of only since the mid summer, it is a report that is done monthly, so depending on how it goes, we may be further down the list again next month.
Great government leadership and commitment from all in the health service. Very proud of our efforts.
I’m happy with it- come at me.
@murt de murty: wont be long now ;)
While not perfect, it certainly could have been better.
But credit where it due, we did a decent job….and still are.
And v little congrats to The minister for health. How the shinners piled on to him
And the public never doubted the government for a second
Proud of the majority of Irish people not succumbing to the nonsense and believing is good science.
@Tony Gordon: Indeed! Long may it last!
Open the pubs properly!
@Wolfgang Hanratty: Try harder
@Wolfgang Hanratty: did you get a thrill saying that?
@Joe_X: open the pubs and reverse the smoking ban.
And free plastic bags while you re at it.
@Anarch Eco: A right rebel, you are!
Enda was right. We’re the best little country in the world to get Covid in.
We won
@Jonathan:
We are winning, unfortunately this is not beat yet…
Let’s just hope Tony got this right and opening will be handled…
Still 1 in 5 from 18 to 49 are not vaccinated… we can do better there, that would massively reduce the risk of another lockdown…
Feck the begrudgers is my favourite old Dublin saying It could have been invented for the comments section of the Journal.ie.
Pity it took a year to implement hotel quarantine
It could have been so much better, especially with fumble after fumble in 2020 and the worst implementation of quarantine ever. We made it across the line eventually though with an excellent vaccination rate. Government can’t take credit for that.
@Paul Cunningham: The vaccines fell out of the sky then did they?
@Paul Cunningham: But they learned as they went from the mistakes, which is the important thing. Remember, for most people, this is a once in a lifetime event. Very few who lived through the Spanish flu pandemic of just over a hundred years ago are alive today. It’s not as if any government knew what to do when it kicked off, and the next time something like it occurs, hopefully, not at least for another hundred years or more, mistakes will be made again for the exact same reason.
‘The next two weeks are vital’ – still it implies an intelligent educated population in this country
Remembering when New Zealand’s Ms Ardern said last year: ‘I was just looking at Ireland, their stepping down is taking them through to July before some people are back in work.”
I disagree when they say that Ireland was the worst in the world at the start of the year.India was actually the worst in the world.
Looks great when you apply the Trump formula for bringing down the numbers. Stop doing tests and the positivity numbers drop. Or someone has an underlying health condition and dies with Covid then they didn’t die of Covid according to Leo the leak. Don’t report the daily deaths and Looks like we’re heading in the right direction.
Bualadh bos! Aren’t we great! All we had to do was throw away everything our ancestors fought for! They’re spinning in their graves now but shur we can hook them up to the grid to make up for the shortfall in power caused by closing Irish power stations and giving away our electricity to data centres. We’re a great little country!
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