UK promises to keep common Irish travel area post-Brexit

The Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire said the proposals would maintain an invisible Northern Irish border.

کد خبر: ۷۲۲۱۵۹

تاریخ: ۲۵ مرداد ۱۳۹۶ - ۱۵:۱۳

Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire promised today to maintain the "invisible border” between the U.K. and Ireland after Brexit.

Speaking on the BBC’s Today program, Brokenshire said that the U.K.’s post-Brexit proposal for Northern Ireland, to be published today, will solve the thorny issue of border controls between the U.K. and Ireland while also providing a "streamlined process” for goods to come into the U.K. after it leaves the customs union.

"This matters for both of us,” Brokenshire said, underlining the need for bilateral trade between the U.K. and Ireland to continue. Brokenshire also promised that the Common Travel Area between Northern Ireland and Ireland would continue.

The Irish government put out a statement ahead of the British paper, saying, "The emphasis on the priority areas identified by the government, including the Common Travel Area, the Good Friday Agreement, North/South cooperation and avoiding a hard border, is welcome.”

Dublin stressed that the U.K. has to first complete the first phase of talks with the EU, covering the rights of EU citizens residing in the U.K. (and vice versa), the financial settlement with the EU, as well as issues specific to Ireland, before moving on to the U.K.’s future relationship with the EU.

Speaking earlier on the BBC program, Mark Daly, deputy leader of Irish opposition party Fianna Fàil, said the U.K. proposal "appears more like fiction,” and said the British government was "clueless” about the situation. He said the proposals amounted to a "smugglers charter.”