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European Council President Charles Michel visits Dublin today to discuss Brexit negotiations.
Michel will meet with Taoiseach Micheál Martin before next week’s European Union leaders’ summit in Brussels.
Martin said there remained considerable gaps in trade talks with the UK.
He said: “I hope that, as the negotiations intensify, a means can be found to bridge the considerable gaps that remain between the positions of the EU and the UK.
“As EU leaders have repeatedly said, we want a deal, but it cannot be at any cost.
“The EU has also made clear that the UK must demonstrate its commitment to the full and faithful implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement, including the Protocol on Ireland.
“Confidence in this regard must be urgently restored.”
The Northern Ireland Protocol, which is part of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, is designed to prevent the return of a firm border on the island of Ireland.
Part of their solution to this problem is to keep Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market for goods, unlike the rest of the UK, by creating new controls for trade across the Irish Sea.
How these controls are implemented is still being negotiated in a joint UK-EU committee.
While the UK has not indicated its intention not to comply with these controls, the Internal Market Act, if implemented, would give its ministers the power to revoke them, which would violate the binding international agreement reached last year.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has set a deadline of October 15 if an agreement is to be finalized before December 31, when the transition period in which the United Kingdom remains in the single market ends.
Formal talks have come to an end, but informal discussions are taking place in London this week.
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The EU has told Johnson that it is “time for the UK to put its cards on the table” in post-Brexit trade negotiations.
London said Johnson reiterated after discussions with Michel that the UK would be prepared to leave at the end of the transition period without a trade deal, but that accepting a broker would be “better for both parties” and that talks should “intensify” .
UK chief negotiator David Frost told the House of Lords EU Committee that a deal with the EU was still “quite a long way off”.
Mr. Martin and Mr. Michel will discuss topics on the European Council agenda, which also include EU coordination on the economic and health impacts of Covid-19, climate action and how to deepen the EU’s relationship with Africa.
Martin added: “We will also explore how best to intensify our ambition on climate action; how to improve our coordination on the economic and health impacts of Covid-19, supporting Europe’s recovery; and how to deepen the EU’s relationship with Africa. .
“On all of these issues, Ireland will continue to positively engage with our EU partners in the broader global interest.”
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