Barnier urges June 'deadline' for decision on Brexit border issue
EU chief negotiator on a visit to Northern Ireland and the Republic
Michel Barnier has urged rapid agreement by June on the Irish border.
The scope of all-island customs and regulations needs to be settled between Britain and the EU, the bloc's chief negotiator added during a visit to the Republic and Northern Ireland.
Many of the operational details have yet to be agreed and the vexed question of the UK's only land border with an EU state after Brexit is at the centre of intensive work by officials at present.
Mr Barnier said: “We need to agree rapidly by June on the scope of all-island customs and regulations, the safety and controls that we need to respect the single market.''
He said the June meeting of European leaders in Brussels would be a “stepping stone'' for the final summit in October, which is the deadline for reaching an agreement on withdrawal.
A joint report on the UK's withdrawal agreed in December by Prime Minister Theresa May and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker included both British proposals, along with a third backstop'' option which would keep Northern Ireland in the customs union.
But a version published by the EU in February and agreed by the EU27 last month contained only the backstop'', effectively drawing a customs border down the Irish Sea, which a furious Mrs May saidno British prime minister could ever agree''.
Mr Barnier visited the Irish border town of Dundalk, Co Louth, for a conference today (Monday)
He said: We want to succeed with the UK, not against the UK.
Together with the Irish government we are looking for practical solutions.''
On Monday he delivered a keynote speech during a meeting of the Irish government-hosted All-Island Civic Dialogue on Brexit in Dundalk.
He then crosses the frontier to Newry in Co Down for meetings with business leaders.
On Tuesday Mr Barnier will visit the other, north-western end of the porous 310-mile border at Londonderry.
It is his third visit to Ireland and Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney said he was a friend of the country.