European Union ready for ‘Hard’ talks with Brexit Britain

BRUSSELS: The European Union is ready for talks on future ties with Brexit Britain ranging from trade to security but the process will be “very hard” and could fail if London does not secure the Irish border as earlier agreed, ministers said on Tuesday.

Britain left the EU on January 31 after over three years of tortuous divorce talks, greatly complicated by sensitivities around the Irish border, the only land frontier between the bloc and the UK now and with a past history of violence.


With both sides talking tough ahead of negotiations due to start next week, Ireland warned that even a basic trade deal would be impossible by the end of this year if London does not honour border obligations under the withdrawal deal.

“If there isn’t progress on the infrastructure needed...in the next few months, that’s going to be a very worrying signal for whether or not it’s going to be possible to conclude something sensible before the end of the year,” Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney told reporters in Brussels.

“If that doesn’t happen, it will damage significantly the prospects of being able to get even a bare-bones trade agreement...by the end of the year,” he said on arrival for a meeting with peers at EU headquarters.

In London, the British government said it would publish its own negotiating lines for EU talks on Thursday. “The UK’s primary objective in the negotiations is to ensure we restore our economic and political independence on January 1, 2021,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said.