Mind the gap between the Brexit ‘backstop’ and our national interest
The EU is not prioritising the border for Ireland’s benefit. It is using the country to play a high-stakes game of bluff
EU negotiator Michel Barnier was crystal clear in his address to the conference on Brexit in Dundalk last Monday: “The backstop is needed in order to respect the integrity of the single market and the EU’s customs union.”
Some of our politicians had thought the so-called ‘backstop’ was there to simply preserve the gains of the Good Friday Agreement. However, the EU has been entirely consistent on this matter. From the offset, it ...
