Ireland won't be 'back door' into EU if no-deal Brexit: Irish PM

Yahoo – AFP, April 2, 2019

Irish Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Leo Varadkar speaks to the press after a meeting
with the French president at the Elysee Palace in Paris on April 2, 2019 (AFP Photo/
Ludovic MARIN)

Paris (AFP) - Ireland does not want to become a "back door" into the EU single market for Britain in the event of a no-deal Brexit, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said Tuesday in Paris.

"We don't want Ireland to be a back door to the single market, anymore than anybody wants us to become a back door to the single market," Varadkar said after a meeting in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Varadkar said he was committed to preventing goods that do not meet EU norms from entering Ireland or the EU.

"In the unlikely event that we have a no-deal and the UK were to do trade deals with the US or China and we had chlorinated chicken or hormone beef, or products made by child labour in Asian countries, the last thing we would want is that coming south of the border into the Republic of Ireland.

"And we certainly wouldn't want it getting through the Republic of Ireland into the European Union," he said.

But he again reiterated his opposition to creating a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, for fear that it could jeopardise peace in the British province.

Varadkar said that while physical inspections would be necessary on imports like live animals, they could be done at ports in Northern Ireland rather than in the Irish Republic.

"That is the right and best place for them," he said.

But the British government has refused to envisage carrying out customs checks on goods arriving in northern Ireland from Britain, arguing that to do so would drive a wedge through the United Kingdom.

The EU's Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, said Tuesday that the EU was working with Ireland "on a unilateral basis in the event of no deal, to know where we can do these checks," but refused to elaborate further.

Belgium and Netherlands swap land in the New Year

A new Dutch-Belgian border agreement has gone into effect, giving the Netherlands two peninsulas the size of 23 soccer fields. The discovery of a headless body prompted the border move to clear up jurisdictional issues.

Deutsche Welle, 1 January 2018

People walk past Dutch and Belgian flags on the waterfront in Eijsden,
Netherlands (picture-alliance/AP Photo/V. Mayo)

Alongside fireworks and champagne, the Netherlands and Belgium rang in the New Year with some new territory after a revised border agreement between the European neighbors went into effect on Monday.

The curious border situation centers on an area between the eastern Belgian municipality of Vise and the southwestern Dutch municipality of Eijsden that are split by the Meuse River.

Over time, the river's changing course meant that two uninhabited peninsulas that belong to Belgium ended up on the Dutch side of the river while a section of Dutch territory ended up on the Belgian side of the Meuse.

Read more: Netherlands to take Germany tocourt over road tax

Under the new deal, the border between the two countries in that area now splits down the middle of the river. The Netherlands gained an area the size of 23 soccer fields (16.37 hectares; 40.5 acres).

Belgium, on the other hand, gains an area as big as four soccer fields (3.09 hectares; 7.6 acres) and loses the idyllic nature parks on the peninsulas to the Dutch. The big win for Belgium, however, is a solution to a jurisdiction nightmare caused by the previous border.

Screenshot of the border between the Netherlands and Belgium at the
river Meuse (Google Maps)

A Google Maps screenshot shows the twisting and turning old border that created pockets of Belgian and Dutch territory on opposite sides of the Meuse River

A body and a border

The uninhabited peninsulas garnered a dark reputation over time. Local residents complained that the small areas were used for illegal parties, drug deals and prostitution, according to Dutch broadcaster NOS.

Around four years ago, things came to a head after a couple walking on one of the peninsulas stumbled across a headless body.

They informed the Dutch authorities, but police in the Netherlands were unable to investigate as the body was found on Belgian territory.

Read more: Belgian artist cut free after chaining himself to marble block to show 'burdenof history'

On the other side, Belgian authorities had a difficult time getting to the crime scene. Belgian police are not allowed to cross into the Netherlands without receiving special permission, so they had to travel by boat.

The peninsula also didn't have a suitable docking area for their boats, Jean-Francois Duchesne, the police commissiare of the Lower Meuse region told the Associated Press last year.

"So we had to go there by boat with all that was needed — the prosecutor, the legal doctor, the judicial lab — we had to do round trips over the water. It really was not very practical," Duchesne said.

Read more: Waffle smoke wafts across Belgium's capital after factory fire

Belgian and Dutch royals signed off on the deal last November, over 170 years after the countries' borders were originally agreed in 1843.

In 2016, Belgium's Foreign Minister Didier Reynders hailed the deal, saying it was a sign of good relations between the two countries.

"The agreement shows that borders can also be exchanged peacefully," he said.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (above left) and his Dutch

counterpart, Bert Koenders (right)

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The border between Belgium and the Netherlands at Baarle-Nassau
(photo credit: Tos/Wikipedia)

Dublin holds key to Brexit talks breakthrough: EU's Tusk

Yahoo – AFP, Julien LAGACHE with James PHEBY in London, December 1, 2017

Traffic crossing the border into Northern Ireland from the Irish Republic
(AFP Photo/Paul FAITH)

Dublin (AFP) - The European Union will not accept Britain's Brexit offer if Ireland is not satisfied with proposals for future border arrangements, EU President Donald Tusk said in Dublin on Friday.

Tusk spoke after meeting Ireland Prime Minister Leo Varadkar ahead of a Monday deadline by which the EU wants to hear British proposals on sticking points if Brexit talks are to advance.

The EU chief backed Ireland's demands for British guarantees that there will be no hard border between Ireland and British-controlled Northern Ireland after Brexit, which might upset the fragile peace in the region.

"If the UK offer is unacceptable for Ireland, it will also be unacceptable for the EU," Tusk said at a joint press conference with Varadkar.

"I realise that for some British politicians, this may be hard to understand but such is the logic behind the fact that Ireland is the EU member while the UK is leaving.

"This is why the key to the UK's future lies -- in some ways -- in Dublin," he added.

All sides agree there should be no return to physical border checks after Brexit, but Dublin's demand for written guarantees from Britain has proved an obstacle to an early agreement, threatening to delay the wider negotiations and causing tensions with London.

Varadkar said there had been "some progress" on border talks, but warned Britain: "I'm prepared to stand firm with our partners if needs be if the UK offer falls short."

Dublin wants "reassurance" that regulations on issues such as food safety and animal welfare would be maintained in Northern Ireland, to avoid damaging cross-border trade once Britain leaves the EU's single market and customs union.

"We can't be asked here to leap into the dark by opening up a phase two discussion in the hope that these issues might be resolved," Coveney told BBC radio.

Britain insists the issue of the Irish border can only be resolved as part of negotiations on its future partnership with the EU.

Tusk appeared to acknowledge the point, saying: "It is clear that we cannot reach a full agreement on every single detail at this stage, especially that the final outcome will be linked to the future relations between the EU and the UK."

Demonstators set up a mock customs checkpoint at the Ireland-Northern Ireland 

frontier to protest against the potential introduction of border checks after Brexit 

(AFP Photo/Paul FAITH)

Ireland should 'wind its neck in'

A British newspaper reported on Thursday that the two sides were close to a deal that would avoid regulatory divergence between Ireland and Northern Ireland, even if the rest of Britain moved away from EU rules.

The Times said this would involve devolving powers to the assembly in Belfast to allow them to keep similar customs arrangements to Ireland on agriculture and energy.

But the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the largest in Northern Ireland, reacted angrily to any suggestion of creating separate rules for the province.

It warned that agreement on those terms would threaten its support for British Prime Minister Theresa May's Conservatives, which keeps her minority government in power.

"If there is any hint that in order to placate Dublin and the EU, they're prepared to have Northern Ireland treated differently than the rest of the UK, then they can't rely on our vote," DUP lawmaker Sammy Wilson told the BBC.

Former Northern Ireland first minister Peter Robinson, a former leader of the DUP, called on Dublin late Thursday to stop interfering, saying: "In layman's terms, the South needs to wind its neck in."

Brexit cannot destroy peace

The British government says negotiations are continuing with Ireland, but its proposals for a solution were savaged on Friday by a committee of MPs, who warned that a "hard border" in Ireland seemed inevitable.

This has raised fears that the Good Friday Agreement, the peace deal that erased the border and ended generations of conflict in Northern Ireland that killed 3,500 people, could be under threat.

"We cannot allow Brexit to destroy this achievement," Tusk warned Friday.

EU leaders meeting in Brussels on December 14 and 15 will decide if there has been "sufficient progress" on the Irish border, Britain's financial settlement and EU citizens' rights to move on to trade talks.

A deal is close on the latter issues, but failure to make headway on Ireland would deal a major blow to Britain's hopes of agreeing a new trade deal with Brussels before it leaves the EU in March 2019.

#UPDATE Dublin holds key to Brexit talks breakthrough, EU's Tusk says https://t.co/4ib0zste5T pic.twitter.com/xeBWP21YY7

— AFP news agency (@AFP) December 1, 2017

Control borders but don't shut them, says Dutch minister

Yahoo – AFP, February 14, 2016

Migrants and refugees cross the Greek-Macedonian border near the town

of Gevgelija, on February 14, 2016 (AFP Photo/Robert Atanasovski)

Skopje (AFP) - Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders on Sunday said Europe must control its borders but not close them, as divisions deepen over how the continent should stem its huge influx of migrants.

Koenders, whose country currently holds the European Union's rotating six-month presidency, rejected calls for Macedonia to seal off its borders as he visited the capital Skopje.

"Some (EU) member states have urged Macedonia to close its border with Greece," Koenders said after a meeting with his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Poposki.

"Effective border control is most important rather than this moment going into a closure."

Macedonia is not a member of the EU but as a transit country on the Balkan route towards northern Europe, hundreds of thousands of refugees and other migrants passed through its territory last year after landing on Greek beaches from Turkey.

Austria's Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz on Friday warned Macedonia that it should be ready to close its border to migrants, saying Vienna may also begin turning refugees away in coming months.

Migrants and refugees board a train heading to Serbia from the Macedonian-Greek

border near Gevgelija on February 14, 2016 (AFP Photo/Robert Atanasovski)

Since November only refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq have been allowed to cross the Macedonian-Greek border, but migrants from other countries have still tried to get across.

Macedonia is building a new razor-wire fence parallel to an existing one on the Greek border to make it harder for migrants to enter illegally.

Koenders said he still believed it was possible to prevent a "domino effect" in border closures and find a solution to Europe's worst migration crisis since World War II.

"As EU president it is our task especially to talk with Austria, Macedonia, but also with Greece to make sure to find an effective solution to the issue of migration," he said.

"I still think it is very much possible."

Control borders but don't shut them, says Dutch foreign minister https://t.co/yVoBlLVpTL pic.twitter.com/CChN0CkmwL

— AFP news agency (@AFP) February 14, 2016

Fresh concern for Schengen as Sweden, Denmark tighten borders

Yahoo – AFP, Sören Billing, January 4, 2016

Danish security personnel check travellers IDs at the train station in Kastrup,
on January 4, 2015 (AFP Photo/Nils Meilvang)

Copenhagen (AFP) - Sweden on Monday imposed controls on travellers arriving from Denmark in a bid to curb an unprecedented influx of refugees, prompting knock-on measures from Denmark that triggered fresh concern for Europe's Schengen passport-free zone.

Hours after the Swedish controls on a major bridge-and-tunnel link with Denmark went into effect, the Danish government, which fears being saddled with large numbers of migrants, announced it would implement spot checks on its border with Germany.

More than three million migrants are

 expected to arrive in Europe by 2017,

 according to the European Commission

(AFP Photo/Aris Messinis)

Alarmed by the restrictions, which come as both Germany and Sweden grapple with record migrant numbers, Berlin warned Europe's Schengen zone was "in danger".

"Freedom of movement is an important principle -- one of the biggest achievements (in the European Union) in recent years," German foreign ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer told reporters.

"Schengen is very important but it is in danger," he said.

Swedish Migration Minister Morgan Johansson defended his country's systematic controls, saying they were aimed at "preventing an acute situation where we can no longer welcome asylum seekers properly".

The new measures mean travellers between the neighbouring countries will have to show their ID cards for the first time since the late 1950s, when a Nordic agreement on passport-free travel came into force that predates the 20-year-old Schengen zone.

Domino effect

Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen cited the Swedish checks to justify his own country's immediate introduction of random border controls.

Danish security staff check passenger 

ID's at Kastrup airport's train station 

outside Copenhagen, on January 4, 

2016 (AFP Photo/Björn Lindgren)

"We are simply reacting to a decision made in Sweden... This is not a happy moment at all," he told reporters.

Rasmussen warned that Sweden's controls could have a domino effect on Denmark, which received just 21,000 asylum requests in 2015, compared to Sweden's 163,000.

"It's clear the EU is not able to protect its outer borders and other countries are going to be forced to introduce ... border controls," he said, adding: "Europe's leaders must react to this."

Under Schengen rules, countries are allowed to re-introduce border checks for up to six months in exceptional circumstances.

On Monday, extra security staff were on hand at the Danish side of the Oresund crossing, a major entry point for migrants and refugees hoping to start a new life in Sweden.

The controls proceeded smoothly but travellers were warned to expect longer queues and delays during the early evening rush hour when commuters with jobs in Denmark return home to Sweden.

Tens of thousands of journeys are recorded on the bridge each day, including 8,600 people who commute between jobs and their homes in Copenhagen and the southern Swedish city of Malmo.

Denmark says it will maintain controls 

at the German border for at least 10

days (AFP Photo/Palle Peter Skov)

'A Berlin Wall'

Under the new rules, all rail passengers now have to exit the train at Copenhagen airport's Kastrup station and clear checkpoints before boarding again.

A private security company at the station could be seen checking and photographing traveller IDs before allowing passengers on trains.

Officials at Danish train operator DSB confirmed a small number of people had been turned away, but would not specify if they were migrants or just commuters lacking proper ID.

"If they don't have photo ID then we say sorry, we can't let you on board," DSB spokesman Tony Bispeskov said.

Temporary fencing has also been erected at Kastrup station to prevent people from trying to sneak onto Sweden-bound trains.

The Oresund Bridge links Sweden and 

Denmark (AFP Photo/Johan Nilsson)

"It's as if we are building a Berlin Wall here. We are going several steps back in time," said Michael Randropp, a spokesman for the local Kystbanen commuters' association.

The new measures come after Sweden -- which has taken in more asylum seekers per capita than any other EU nation -- said it could no longer cope with the unregulated flow of arrivals.

More than one million migrants reached Europe in 2015, most of whom were refugees fleeing war and violence in Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

Europe has struggled to respond to the continent's biggest refugee crisis since World War II, with several Schengen countries, including Germany, Austria and France, already re-imposing border checks last year.

Last week Norway, which is not an EU member but belongs to Schengen, announced it would start turning back refugees without visas arriving from elsewhere in the Schengen area, particularly Sweden.

Fresh concern for Schengen as Sweden, Denmark tighten borders https://t.co/AcRT0oiLtE pic.twitter.com/9ObUnIq4EI

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) January 4, 2016

Related Article:

Video: a Dutch view of why refugees should go to Denmark instead

Germany and the Netherlands end centuries-old border dispute

The Netherlands and Germany have long disagreed about where exactly their shared nautical border lies in the North Sea. A meeting of the two nations' foreign ministers finally put an end to the dispute.

Deutsche Welle, 24 Oct 2014

A border dispute is not an issue usually associated within the cut-and-dry framework of the European Union. Yet that's just what Germany and its neighbor, the Netherlands, finally laid to rest on Friday after centuries of discord over the between German East Frisia and Dutch West Frisia, according to German news agency dpa.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (above left) and his Dutch counterpart, Bert Koenders (right), met at the border between the German town of Emden and Delfzijl in the Netherlands, where the Ems River empties into the disputed Dollart Bay. The ministers signed an agreement that the border will remain ambiguous and both nations will share responsibility for the area.

"If only every conflict could be solved so easily," said Steinmeier, after he and Koenders signed the document, symbolically astride the deck of a ship, floating between both nations.

The agreement has important economic implications, as it has long been the site of contention between German and Dutch fisherman, as well as the 450 million euro- ($570 million) Borkum Riffgat offshore wind farm, run by the German EWE energy company to the ire of Dutch protesters.

On the Dutch side, in Delfzijl, a coal power plant has been built which the German East Frisians say will pollute the river and the bay and hurt tourism - something they depend on. The government of Lower Saxony, the state to which East Frisia belongs, called it an "unfriendly act" on the part of the Dutch.

The document signed by Steinmeier and Koenders put these issues to rest, at least diplomatically, and the German wind farm no long stands on shaky ground in terms of international law. The responsibilities of both nations are now clearly defined.

Steinmeier called the agreement "a good result for the economy, for new wind farms and maritime interests."

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