Britain cannot unilaterally scrap border backstop: Irish foreign minister

The EU and Britain are at odds over how to treat the border between Ireland, an EU state, and Northern Ireland, a UK province, after Brexit so that there will be no return to a hard border on the island.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has resisted the EU’s plan for including Northern Ireland in its customs union for a two-year transition period and beyond that until a permanent solution is found for trade.

With just five months until the UK is scheduled to leave the EU, negotiators from the both sides have failed to iron out the terms of the so-called “backstop” insurance arrangement to keep open the border between British-ruled Northern Ireland and EU member state Ireland.

May’s Brexit Minister Dominic Raab had reportedly demanded the right to withdraw Britain of the “backstop” arrangement for the Irish border after three months.

“The Irish position remains consistent and v[ery] clear that a ‘time-limited backstop’ or a backstop that could be ended by UK unilaterally would never be agreed to by Ireland or the European Union,” Coveney tweeted on Monday.

“These ideas are not backstops at all + don’t deliver on previous UK commitments,” he added.

British Housing Minister James Brokenshire said on Sunday that differences still remained on the Irish border, saying British and EU negotiators had yet to finalize the “backstop” arrangement.

“That very much remains our focus and attention in getting that deal,” Brokenshire told the BBC.

May relies on Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in her minority government. The DUP has threatened that it would stand against any Brexit deal that would include Northern Ireland in EU’s customs union.