BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) - Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheal Martin said on Friday Britain must respect the Brexit arrangements it had agreed with the European Union for the sensitive Irish border, after a fraught week with little progress towards a new UK-EU trade deal.
With just under two weeks before Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s deadline for reaching a trade agreement, both sides said there were still significant hurdles to finding a way to smooth relations when a transition arrangement ends this year.
Johnson will speak to the head of the EU’s executive, Ursula von der Leyen, on Saturday to assess negotiations on their future relationship and agree next steps after the bloc launched a legal case against Britain over their earlier divorce deal.
Von der Leyen, EU leaders’ chairman Charles Michel and Martin are due to update the summit of the bloc’s 27 national leaders in Brussels on Friday. The EU and Ireland say Britain’s new Internal Markets Bill threatens the Irish peace.
“I’m looking forward to giving my assessment on the Brexit situation to my colleagues... in particular the importance of protecting (of) and the adherence to the Withdrawal Agreement and the Ireland protocol,” Martin said.
“That is important in terms of trade, protection of jobs.”
With time ticking down and some businesses increasingly concerned over what shape trading terms will be in at the end of the year, analysts at U.S. Citi bank said they expected the two sides to agree “a rudimentary Brexit deal”.
They said the Internal Market Bill, which Britain admits breaks not only international law but also undercuts some of the provisions in the divorce deal, has focused minds on Northern Ireland, which shares a border with EU member Ireland.
The United Kingdom says it must break the divorce deal provisions on Ireland and Northern Ireland to allow England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to trade freely with each other if there is no post-Brexit trade deal with the EU.
But some fear, without a deal, a new hard border on the island of Ireland, which could undermine a 1998 peace accord which mostly ended three decades of sectarian conflict.
U.S. special envoy for Northern Ireland Mick Mulvaney said in London the message he would take back to Washington was that all sides were committed to no return to a hard border.
Beyond Northern Ireland, disagreements remain over state aid, fisheries and ways to solve disputes.
The estranged allies would continue trade talks next week and until the next summit of the bloc’s leaders due on Oct.15-16, sources told Reuters after this week’s round of negotiations failed to resolve all the outstanding issues.
More talks have yet to be scheduled but would take place, according to an EU diplomat and an official with the bloc, who both follow Brexit. They spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity as negotiators Michel Barnier and David Frost wrapped up this week’s talks.
The 27 national leaders in the bloc are due to next meet on Oct.15-16 to assess progress on Brexit, with time available by the end of the year to put a new deal in place running out.
The EU is adamant, however, that it would not implement any new UK deal as long as London undermines the divorce treaty.
