‘FRICTIONLESS’ BORDER CHECKS AS BRITAIN WAIVES THE RULES

Posted by Jim on February 3, 2017

The British government appears to be planning a return of customs
controls across the Six County border and may even be hoping to push
all of Ireland out of the EU following hardline statements on its
Brexit plans this week.

In an outline of its plans published in a White Paper, the Tories
showed their intention that the north of Ireland will be taken out of
the EU single market and customs union. Experts have said this will
inevitably require the introduction of checkpoints at the border.

British governor in the North, James Brokenshire said that his
government will look at addressing “individual issues” for the North of
Ireland during Brexit negotiations, but described calls for the Six
Counties to have special status to allow them to remain inside the EU
customs union as the “wrong approach”.

The British stance has generated frustration amid a growing sense of
crisis.

“This position does little in our view to deal with the disastrous
political, social and economic impact Brexit will have on our interests
here on the island of Ireland,” said Sinn Fein’s Michell O’Neill.

British prime minister Theresa May’s visited Dublin for an effective
photocall with Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny last Monday, but only after
refusing an invitation to address the Dublin parliament . Her
description of future border arrangements as “frictionless” reinforced
concerns that her government has already begun to gently promote the
return of border controls.

Two EU customs and international trade experts, Michael Lux and Eric
Pickett this week told a Westminster committee that the British
PM was using “nice words” — but that the Dublin government would be
forced to implement full EU customs checks, with all the necessary
security implications.

Some MPs expressed shock when Mr Lux gave another example of problems
that would arise post-Brexit. “If a Northern Ireland person has a walk
and takes its dog over the border there are specific rules on what kind
of document you have to have,” he told the committee. “You need a
specific document – if you bring a horse riding you also need a specific
document.”

Commentators believe Britain might now be intending to put the 26 County
state in the position of having to choose between reinforcing the
implementation of partition, which could prove politically devastating,
or leaving the EU.

Ms O’Neill said she met Theresa May on Monday but that she “did not
listen” to her concerns. She warned aspirations for a friction-free
Brexit “do not mean anything in practice” and again called for the north
of Ireland to be accorded special status within the EU.

“What we are very sure of is the implications of a hard Brexit are going
to mean a hard border – a soft border is a nonsense,” she said. “So the
implications are severe.”

Sinn Fein has pointed to the example of Greenland, which secured a
special deal after it left the European Community in 1985 covering
fisheries. Mrs O’Neill told an event in Belfast: “We are not looking to
recreate the wheel. This is something that has been done elsewhere.
Other states have had opportunity to have special designated status. We
are asking for the same.”

There were also deep implications for the peace process after the
Supreme Court in London controversially recognised the sovereignty of
the Westminster parliament above the result of the Brexit referendum —
both for the British jurisdiction as a whole and for the individual
devolved regions, including the Six Counties.

The judgement overrules that section of the Good Friday Agreement which
states that the consent of those within the Six County area is required
for a change in its constitutional status.

Ms O’Neill called for he political, constitutional and institutional
integrity of the Good Friday Agreement to be “fully defended”.

“It is clear that Tory Government is seeking to impose Brexit against
the will of the people in the north and of the people of Scotland. The
Tory Government have effectively set aside the democratic process to
pursue their own narrow political agenda,” she said.

Des Dalton of Republican Sinn Fein said the ruling had emphasised that
powers of national sovereignty are “vested in the British imperial
parliament at Westminster” while the Six County state is regarded as
merely another region under its rule.

“The British Supreme Court Ruling exposes the reality that the British
government’s supposed concern for the ‘will of the majority within
Northern Ireland’ is subservient to the interests of the imperial
parliament at Westminster,” he said.