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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/sep/12/tory-brexiter-group-publishes-plan-for-checks-away-from-irish-border
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| Tory Brexiter group accuses May of failing to challenge EU over Irish border | Tory Brexiter group accuses May of failing to challenge EU over Irish border |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Theresa May has “failed to challenge the position taken by the EU” on the Irish border, allowing it to become “a decisive factor” in the Brexit negotiations, according to the hard Brexit European Research Group, which has been discussing whether to unseat the prime minister. | |
| A position paper published on the future of the Irish border and presented by David Davis and a string of Tories hostile to May’s Chequers plan does concede that the UK will have to sign up to “equivalence of UK and EU regulations” for food products and standards. | |
| But it claims it will be possible to do that by the UK and EU maintaining a system of customs checks away from the border. The paper says that “repetitive trade is well suited to established technical solutions and simplified customs procedures already available”. | |
| Two former Northern Ireland secretaries, Owen Paterson and Theresa Villiers, were due to speak at the event, in a further sign that the ERG rebellion against May is hardening into a group openly defying May’s authority. | |
| Noisiest in their opposition are Tory Brexiters, not least David Davis and Boris Johnson, both of whom quit the cabinet in protest. They argue that the promise to maintain a common rulebook for goods and other continued alignment will mean a post-Brexit UK is tied to the EU without having a say on future rules, rather than being a free-trading independent nation. | |
| Labour has also disparaged the proposal, expressing deep scepticism about the so-called facilitated customs arrangement system. | |
| Brussels has sought to stay positive, but has deep concerns about elements of the plan viewed as overly pick-and-mix, and thus potentially incompatible with EU principles. | |
| Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, says he opposes both the customs plan and the idea of alignment for goods. He also makes plain his contention that the Chequers plan contains no workable idea for the Ireland-Northern Ireland border. | |
| But at the same time the EU has been careful to not entirely dismiss the proposals, raising the possibility it could accept some adapted version. | |
| Officially, May and her cabinet, though even here the backing can seem lukewarm at times. Asked about Chequers, the home secretary, Sajid Javid, said it was the government’s plan “right now”, indicating alternative ideas could be considered. | |
| Even May’s allies concede it will be a hugely difficult task to get the plan through parliament. Damian Green, the PM’s close friend and former de fact deputy, described the process as “walking a narrow path with people chucking rocks at us from both sides”. | |
| On the remain side of the Conservatives, the former education secretary Justine Greening called the Chequers plan “more unpopular than the poll tax”, saying May should start again from scratch. | |
| If anything can save the plan – and it’s an outside shot – it will be a combination of the hugely tight timetable and the fact that, as yet, no one else has yet produced a plan with a better chance of being accepted by parliament. | |
| On 20 September, an informal gathering in Salzburg, Austria, will provide a snapshot of current EU thinking. Then, 10 days later, the Conservative conference could show the Chequers plan is holed below the waterline. | |
| If it survives these tests, the proposals will then reach the crucial EU summit Brussels on 18 October, with something final needed, at the very latest, in the next two months. PETER WALKER | |
| Also on the podium were the chairman of the ERG, Jacob Rees-Mogg, and the former Northern Ireland first minister Lord Trimble. | |
| Earlier, the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, said the EU would always show “loyalty and solidarity” with the Republic of Ireland on the issue of its border with Northern Ireland. Delivering his state of the union speech Juncker said: “We will defend all the elements of the Good Friday agreement. | Earlier, the European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, said the EU would always show “loyalty and solidarity” with the Republic of Ireland on the issue of its border with Northern Ireland. Delivering his state of the union speech Juncker said: “We will defend all the elements of the Good Friday agreement. |
| “It is Brexit that risks making the border more visible in Northern Ireland. It is not the European Union.” | “It is Brexit that risks making the border more visible in Northern Ireland. It is not the European Union.” |
| Downing Street on Tuesday reiterated that Chequers was “the only serious, credible and negotiable plan which is on the table which both delivers on the will of the British people and which prevents the imposition of a hard border in Northern Ireland”. | Downing Street on Tuesday reiterated that Chequers was “the only serious, credible and negotiable plan which is on the table which both delivers on the will of the British people and which prevents the imposition of a hard border in Northern Ireland”. |
| The ERG paper says larger companies would use “trusted trader” schemes to clear their goods for export and import, and other declarations would be incorporated into the existing system used for VAT returns. | |
| “The EU will be able to maintain the integrity of its internal market without erecting a hard border along its border with Northern Ireland,” it says. | |
| “At the same time, the United Kingdom will be able to develop a fully independent trade policy rather than remaining a rule-taker. The one element of ‘alignment’ necessary is the maintenance of the current common biosecurity zone covering the island of Ireland, and this is not contentious. | |
| “The necessary procedures described can all be implemented within the existing legal and operational frameworks of the EU and the UK, based on the mutual trust on which regular trade depends. | |
| “Rational, pragmatic approaches can ensure that the vital trade across the border is maintained. At the same time, this allows the United Kingdom to conduct an independent trade policy without threatening the integrity of the EU single market.” | |
| The group said its proposals could be delivered without the need for any new infrastructure at the border and without weakening north-south co-operation. | |
| “There is nothing which would reduce our commitment to the Belfast agreement, or which might jeopardise peace in Northern Ireland,” the group said. | |
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