Prime Minister Theresa May failed to clinch a deal on Monday to open talks on post-Brexit free trade with the European Union after a tentative deal with Dublin to keep EU rules in Northern Ireland angered her allies in Belfast.
The British leader had sat down to lunch with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker hoping that a last-minute offer to the Irish government of “regulatory alignment” on both sides of a new UK-EU land border would remove a last obstacle to the EU open talks next week on future trade.
Yet as May and Juncker spoke in Brussels and the pound rose on prospects of free trade and perhaps a very “soft Brexit”,Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) issued anuncompromising reiteration of its refusal to accept any”divergence” from rules on the British mainland.
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar cancelled a news conference and the pound fell back, losing a cent against the dollar, as May and Juncker emerged to say there was still not”sufficient progress” on divorce terms to move ahead.
May agreed with Juncker that a deal could be reached in a few days before the EU summit on December 14-15, but that promise did little to stem recriminations at home, where Brexit campaigners want Britain to become what one called a “free agent” and set its own rules.
Varadkar shared the view of some officials in Brussels that it was an opportunity missed.
“I’m surprised and disappointed that the UK government appears not to be in a position to conclude what was agreed earlier today,” he told a news conference in Dublin.
“I accept that the British prime minister has asked for more time and I know that she faces many challenges and I acknowledge that she is negotiating in good faith but my position and that of the Irish government is unequivocal.”
The Irish border has emerged as a defining issue for Brexit,one of the thorniest of three main issues, which include how much Britain should pay to leave and protections for expatriate citizens rights, to be settled before moving talks forward.
