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A few days, Theresa May still has time. At latest, British prime Minister and EU must have moved on to each or. On 4 December, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker wants to see results. The Irish border is still a sticking point. If both sides do not agree on a viable compromise, re will be nothing to do with talks about a free trade agreement.
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The problem: The Irish island is divided. The sourn part, Irish Republic, remains after Brexit of Britain in EU, in internal market and in customs Union. After all, Irish Republic is an independent EU state. The norrn part of island, however, Norrn Ireland, is part of United Kingdom, with Great Britain in March 2019 from EU. As British Government has decided that United Kingdom will also leave internal market and customs Union, this leads to a paradoxical situation.
With Brexit, EU’s external border suddenly shifts into middle of Irish countryside. The border has disappeared for 20 years. Those who drive on country roads meandering through Meadows of Ireland no longer realize that re was a border.
However, EU’s external border must be controlled. In Ireland, too, it would be necessary to look at Brexit, which is actually in 177,000 trucks that roll over green border every month. What if we were to transport cheap goods that Norrn Ireland, for example, imported from China, but which would have to be customs-cleared in EU or could not be introduced in terms of quality standards?
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But Irish border cannot simply be raised again. Since 1923, United Kingdom, Norrn Ireland, Irish Republic and Channel Islands have formed so-called Common travel area, allowing citizens of both sides to cross border without any controls.
More importantly, however, are constitutional provisions of Irish Peace Treaty of April 1998. The so-called Friday Agreement has been legally enshrined in need for Britain, Norrn Ireland and Irish Republic to ensure that re will be no hard border between Norrn Ireland and Irish Republic. The old confessional disputes should not flare up again. The life of Irish should work as smoothly as possible, without frontiers, without controls, without police, terror, barbed wire, watchtowers and bombings – without pain of previous years.
In more than 140 agreements, cross-border life of Irish people was organised to establish normality: this is how electricity is delivered across border, pharmacies dispense medicine on recipes issued by doctors on or hand, cell phone tariffs are like Domestic calls. Every day more than 30,000 Irish people cross 500 kilometre border to work on or side, to visit families or to milk cows.
