The Irish Government today asked the British Executive to focus on “intensifying” the “Brexit” negotiations with the European Union (EU) rather than preparing for a possible disagreement.
Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said at the end of a bilateral meeting in London that “it is not likely” or “nobody wants” that the negotiations between the United Kingdom and the EU end without a consensus on the future relationship.
He urged the British to “focus” on obtaining that pact with a view to the October European Council.
The British Minister of the Cabinet Office, David Lidington, replied that London carries with “vigor” the preparations for a possible “no agreement”, since “it is prudent”.
Earlier, in statements to the BBC, Coveney had called “bravado” the continuous statements by politicians of the ruling British Conservative Party that a “no agreement” with the EU is “better than a bad agreement.”
Although it maintains that it aspires to an optimum consensus with the Twenty-seven, the Government of London has confirmed that it is prepared for a disagreement – which includes to store medicines and foods -, something that the “tories” support for a “brexit” hard or rupture total with the community block.
Coveney also told the BBC that Ireland would support an extension of the negotiation deadline if the UK asked for it and was convinced that the issue of the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, which should remain open after the “brexit” can be resolved. under the peace agreements of 1998.
Lidington and Coveney starred in London today the first intergovernmental meeting of the United Kingdom and Ireland in ten years, convened to try to resolve the suspension for months of the autonomous government of the British region of Northern Ireland, by disagreements between the parties that share the power.
In this sense, Coveney assured today the Democratic Unionist Party, majority in the province and parliamentary partner of the British “tories”, that Ireland “does not want to interfere” in the politics of the United Kingdom, but to watch over the fulfillment of the Peace Agreement of Holy Friday.
