The European Union is helping the United Kingdom to design a plan on keeping a "frictionless" Irish border after Brexit, which will raise the chances of both parties signing a deal by the end of 2018, UK media reported on Monday.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th September, 2018) The European Union is helping the United Kingdom to design a plan on keeping a "frictionless" Irish border after Brexit, which will raise the chances of both parties signing a deal by the end of 2018, UK media reported on Monday.
London and Brussels have long been at odds over the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, as this will be the only land border between the United Kingdom and the European Union after Brexit. Since a mutually beneficial solution has not been found, both parties have repeatedly voiced concern of a possible no-deal scenario.
According to The Times, the EU plan envisages applying "trusted-trader" schemes, under which bar codes on shipping containers will help track the goods exchanged between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. If this plan is realized, there will be no need to create new infrastructure at the border.
Michael Barnier, the EU chief negotiator, is currently working on the text outlining this plan, which UK Prime Minister Theresa May is supposed to present to the European governments after a conference of her Conservative Party, scheduled for October 3, the daily reported.
The European Union believes that this move will help May reach an agreement with Brussels before the end of 2018, according to the newspaper.
The United Kingdom has previously refused to accept the European Union's proposal to check goods leaving the UK mainland at a border in the Irish Sea. London rejected the idea because it envisaged a different constitutional and territorial status for Northern Ireland. London has repeatedly voiced its concerns that intensifying control at the border could provoke tensions.
The United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in a referendum in June 2016 and is expected to do so by late March 2019.
