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Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said he is not optimistic about the prospect of a deal being reached between the UK and the European Union and acknowledged that the government is preparing for the prospect of a no-deal Brexit.
“Confidence has been eroded,” Martin said Thursday as the EU and the UK prepared for emergency talks on the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement, under which the UK will leave the EU.
Relations between the EU and the UK fell to their worst level since the Brexit vote in 2016 on Wednesday, when the British government published planned legislation that will violate the withdrawal treaty signed by the two sides last year, casting doubt the future of business talks.
Taoiseach Micheal Martin during a press conference on the Government’s 2020 Brexit Preparedness Action Plan. Photography: Julien Behal Photography / PA
There were emergency contacts between EU leaders amid the development, while Mr Martin expressed the government’s concerns in a “direct” phone call with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday night.
When asked about the details of that call on Thursday, Mr Martin told RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland: “Confidence has eroded but it made it clear to me that the UK was fully committed to meeting its obligations. protect the single market and the fluidity of trade. North and south.”
When asked how he thought Ireland could believe this statement, Mr Martin said: “The legislation goes against that.”
The controversial legislation, the UK Internal Market Bill, gives British ministers the power to decide unilaterally how parts of the Northern Ireland protocol should be implemented in the withdrawal agreement and does not apply parts of the treaty.
When asked if he believed there would be a no-deal Brexit, Martin said Ireland was “bracing for that prospect.”
Extraordinary meeting
Maroš Šefcovic, who oversees the implementation of the agreements designed to avoid a border across the island of Ireland on behalf of the European Commission, has left Brussels for London for a special meeting of the joint EU-UK committee on implementation.
Šefcovic, who co-chairs the committee, asked his counterpart, British Cabinet Minister Michael Gove, for an extraordinary meeting after the British government acknowledged that his bill would violate international law.
“The EU is seeking clarification from the UK on the full and timely implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement,” said European Commission chief spokesman Eric Mamer when announcing the meeting.
The latest round of negotiations between the EU and the UK is underway in London this week, but the British government’s plan has been greeted in Brussels as a serious threat to the talks that diminishes the possibility of reaching an agreement.
“This will have a profound impact and I hope it is a kind of dead negotiating stance rather than a real position that they will take,” Maltese Christian Democrat MEP Roberta Metsola, who coordinates the European Parliament’s justice committee, told The Irish Times.
“We are united and we are absolutely clear that whatever happens, we will be united to protect the interests of Ireland.”
Speaking on RTÉ, Mr. Martin said that he believed there were two options, a limited trade agreement or no agreement.
Mr Martin said that he had “made it very clear in very clear terms” in his phone call with Mr Johnson that Ireland’s opposition to the UK’s “unilateral” decision to violate an international treaty and its obligations.
The Taoiseach said that when a government enters into a deal, its own parliament approves it, that has implications for the future. The publication of a bill like the one this week suggested plans to break its commitment to international law.
Shameless
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald told the show that the principles by which agreements are made are important and must be upheld.
It was not acceptable for the UK to deviate from the withdrawal agreement in such a dramatic and blatant manner. Doing so will have a major impact on the relations between the two islands and the north and south.
McDonald said comments by UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock again demonstrated “that the Conservatives regard Ireland as little more than a pawn.” Hancock’s claim that the new legislation would strengthen the peace was “astonishing,” he said. The UK had broken its word and violated a commitment made last year.
Ireland needed to rely on its full capabilities, the rule of international law and contacts in the EU and the US.
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