The United Kingdom should not see the European Union's willingness to extend the post-Brexit transition period in order to resolve the Irish Border issue as "a threat", Tánaiste Simon Coveney has said.
The EU has proposed to British prime minister Theresa May an extension to the no-change transition period after the UK departs the EU in March beyond its proposed end-date in December 2020.
Both parties in the negotiations see this as an option to solve the issue of the so-called backstop option for Northern Ireland, which would avoid the return of a hard border on the island of Ireland by keeping the North fully aligned with the EU's customs union and parts of the single market.
The EU wants the UK government to agree to a backstop that would keep Northern Ireland under EU economic rules unless and until a trade deal was agreed to maintain an open Irish Border.
EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has floated this idea of a "two tier" backstop to reach an agreement on a divorce deal that would be politically acceptable to Conservatives and unionists who oppose the Northern Ireland-specific backstop over their concerns that it creates a border down the Irish Sea.
‘Time and space’
Speaking at a Government Brexit conference in Monaghan, Mr Coveney suggested “a two or three year transition period” - up from the current proposal of 21 months - in order “to give everybody the time and space to adapt to new realities” around the UK being out of the customs union and single market.
The time and space was needed so “you don’t have a panicked response,” he told Border area businesses.
“This is all about trying to accommodate British concerns, not try to foist a different view point or to try to extend time periods in terms of transition for the sake of it,” the Tánaiste told reporters afterwards.
Mr Coveney said he always insisted that a two-year transition period was not going to be long enough and that it would take longer to negotiate a complex future relationship across trade and security.
“Nobody in the UK should see it as a threat. If 21 months is what they want, then that is fine too,” he said.
In the wake of the idea emerging as EU leaders met in Brussels, Mrs May faced a backlash from hard Brexiteers within her own party and the Democratic Unionist Party that is keeping her minority government in power in Westminster over extending the transition period.
Extension
The British leader said at the EU summit in Brussels on Thursday that she was prepared to consider a delay of “a matter of months” in the UK’s final departure from the EU with an extension of the transition.
Mr Coveney called for the EU and UK negotiating teams to re-engage and intensify their talks to find “flexibility to give Britain the reassurance it needs in relation to the backstop.”
The EU wanted a solution that reassures the UK the backstop is “not in any way” a threat to the UK’s economic or constitutional sovereignty, but “a practical, sensible, de-dramatised measure” to solve the Irish Border problem without “in any way” creating barriers to trade between Britain and Northern Ireland.
The Tánaiste was speaking at the Government’s third “Getting Ireland Brexit Ready” conference, previously dubbed “Brexpo” by Mr Coveney, to encourage businesses to prepare for the UK’s exit.
