Biden’s victory may boost Brexit negotiations with the UK

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The foreign minister said a Joe Biden presidency could make a difference in Brexit negotiations, adding that the US president-elect is a “true friend of Ireland” and a supporter of the Good Friday Agreement.

Simon Coveney said the US and the UK are close allies, but the fact that Biden is the next US president may make Downing Street “pause to think” to ensure that Irish issues are a priority. as efforts are made to close this phase of the Brexit negotiations.

It comes as British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is ready to proceed with his controversial Brexit bill despite US President-elect Joe Biden previously warning the UK about the bill.

Biden, who has Irish heritage, warned last September that the Good Friday Agreement cannot be “a victim of Brexit” and said that a trade agreement between the United Kingdom and the United States would depend on the peace terms being respected.

After congratulating Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on their victory, Johnson told broadcasters that he intended to move forward with the domestic market bill, with his peers due to vote on it this week.

The bill would nullify the provisions of the Withdrawal Agreement related to Northern Ireland and the British government has admitted that it violates international law.

Simon Coveney told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that if international treaties “are to be violated by the United Kingdom” in the context of its Internal Market Act, that would make agreement in many other areas “much more difficult” between the EU. and the UK. .

He said this is possibly “the most important week we have had in Brexit trade negotiations since last year,” when efforts were being made to close a withdrawal deal.

Mr. Coveney said that “we are really at the end now” and that great efforts will be made this week to “close this in a way that both parties can live on.

Big problems remain, including trying to reach an agreement on what the EU calls a level playing field and fishing.

He said “we all want to see the reverse” of the tense Brexit-linked clashes in the coming months and years. “We want Ireland, the EU and the UK to work together in partnership in many areas and with the new incoming administration.”

Coveney agreed with former EU ambassador to the United States David O’Sullivan that a new transatlantic agreement between Europe and the United States is needed and said it is something he has advocated for.

In his view, it makes absolute sense, he said, that the EU and the US are talking to each other seriously about creating a trade association and that the UK should be involved in that discussion as well.

The minister added that a Biden presidency creates new opportunities like that, resulting in less division in terms of international politics and, hopefully, more association of like-minded countries.

Former British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the UK could “fight for relevance” under Biden.

Speaking to the BBC’s Westminster Hour, he warned Boris Johnson about how Brexit would be viewed through an Irish lens in the future in the Oval Office.

“Joe Biden is immensely proud of his Irish roots; he did it publicly in his speech (after being announced president-elect), he also does it privately, quotes Seamus Heaney in the blink of an eye,” he said.

Meanwhile, British Environment Secretary George Eustice insisted today that the Internal Market Act “is not about undermining the peace agreement in Ireland.”

He told Sky that there was “good will on both sides” to move towards a Brexit trade deal.

Mr Eustice said that although differences between the UK and the EU persist, Britain is open to a “sensible compromise” on fisheries.

“With regard to fisheries, we have always been open to taking a sensible approach, considering possible deals that could last a couple, three years, for example.”

Boris Johnson, who was asked if he was determined to pass the Internal Market Bill in the face of criticism from Joe Biden, said yesterday: “Yes, as I told Ursula (von der Leyen, President of the European Commission), the parliamentary calendar continues.

“The aim of that bill, and indeed the Finance Bill, is to protect and defend the Good Friday Agreement and the peace process in Northern Ireland.

“And again, that’s one of the things that we are united in with our friends in the White House.”

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Britain had listened “very carefully to our American friends”, including those in the powerful Irish lobby in Washington, about their concerns about the impact of Brexit in Northern Ireland.

Yesterday he told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show that he remains “confident that we will handle all these issues with sensitivity, correctly.”

However, Labor leader Keir Starmer has called on Downing Street to scrap the Brexit bill if it wants to build a world-leading alliance with the Biden administration, set to open in January.

“We will soon have a president in the Oval Office who has been a passionate advocate for the preservation of the Good Friday Agreement,” he wrote in an article for The Guardian.

“He, like governments around the world, will have a bad opinion if our prime minister goes ahead with proposals to undermine that agreement.”

Last week, the UK missed the deadline to respond to legal actions by the European Commission on the internal market bill.

A “reasoned opinion” is the next stage in the infringement procedure launched by the EU.



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