Bullying EU bosses threaten to cut off Ireland if it doesn't put up hard border after Brexit

Top euro MPs said protecting the bloc's Single Market – which Britain will leave after Brexit – will be more important than keeping the peace in Northern Ireland if the UK quits without an agreement.

The remarks are a major blow to Irish PM Leo Varadkar, who has repeatedly claimed that Dublin won't reinstate a hard border even if there's a No Deal.

They come amid growing signs the rest of the EU is trying to pressure Dublin to soften its stance on the hated backstop to help get a deal over the line.

Senior German MEP Elmar Brok said if Ireland failed to police the frontier "we would have to set up a customs border with Ireland".

The EU Parliament veteran, who is close to Angela Merkel, warned if it didn't "we will soon have American chlorine chicken in the EU".

He said: "The defence of the internal market is the basis of our economic success in Germany. If we destroy the Single Market, the EU is finished."

Fellow German MEP Manfred Weber, who is running to be the next Commission president, said the bloc mustn't let itself be "blackmailed" over the border.

He insisted: "The internal market is essential for the EU. We continue to hang in a vacuum, lacking a clear message from the British."

And Belgian MEP Philippe Lamberts, who is leader of the Greens grouping, said he feared "the British would have a 500km backdoor into the Single Market".

He said: "If Ireland refuses to protect the border with Northern Ireland after a hard Brexit, we would have to relocate the customs border to the continent."

That would effectively mean Ireland would be cut off from the rest of the EU.

We'll have to relocate the border to the continent

Mr Varadkar has previously suggested under a No Deal Brexit checks could be carried out at ports in France and the Netherlands instead of at the border – in an attempt to keep the peace.

Meanwhile the Irish finance minister Paschal Donohoe said Dublin had rejected new bilateral talks with the UK over using tech to solve the border.

And he poured scorn on Sajid Javid's claim that there are already Max Fac fixes available for the frontier.

He said: "If he has been shown this, I think we'd all love to see it. I don't see any evidence for it."

Ireland's deputy PM Simon Coveney also accused Brexiteers pushing technological solutions of being "unreasonable".

He said: "The problem has been that none of those ideas around alternative arrangements have actually stood up to scrutiny.

"I’ve yet to hear any new thinking that goes beyond what’s already been tested and this the issue here.

"What Ireland is being asked to do by some in Westminster is to essentially do away with an agreed solution between the UK Government and EU negotiators and to replace it with wishful thinking.

"I think that’s a very unreasonable request to ask the Irish Government to be flexible on."

Former trade minister Greg Hands warned: "UK in EU’s view would need to be in a Customs Union for years to come, and therefore locked in the backstop.

"What motivates these people isn’t peace in Ireland, but locking the UK into a disastrous permanent Customs Union."

Source: Read Full Article