Investing.com - The European Union published its draft Brexit withdrawal treaty on Wednesday, where it called for a ‘common regulatory area’ on the island of Ireland.
The 119 page bill states: ‘the common regulatory area shall comprise an area without internal borders in which the free movement of goods is ensured and North-South cooperation protected’.
Michel Barnier, the European Commission's chief Brexit negotiator responsible for preparing the bill, declared that nothing in the bill would come as a surprise to the UK government, as it was based on the Phase One discussions that were concluded in December.
The Phase One negotiations included three key points that the UK and EU had to agree upon before the talks could continue to Phase Two - the transition talks, which will take place in March. The three areas were: the ‘divorce bill’, citizens’ rights, and the Irish border, the only existing land border between the UK and EU.
To maintain the Good Friday agreement, signed between the UK and Ireland in 1998, the UK and the EU agreed that following the UK's departure, there would be no Irish land or sea border. Some interpretations of the bill published on Wednesday suggest that a 'common regulatory area' on the island of Ireland will result in a Irish Sea border.
Barnier stated in the press conference following the bill's publication that in order for daily life to continue as it does today in Ireland, regulatory alignment between the north and south was essential. Barnier's position inflamed tensions among some of the UK's Brexiteers, who oppose a customs union, something they feel a common regulatory area amounts to.
Boris Johnson, UK foreign secretary and ardent Brexit supporter, stated that he believed the 'Irish issue' was being used as an excuse for pro-Remainers in the UK to stay within the customs union.
Speaking ahead of the publication of the bill on Tuesday, a member of the Northern Irish Democratic Unionist Party, the party whose 10 lawmakers prop up Theresa May’s minority government, said the EU withdrawal bill was a ‘fundamental breach’ of the deal reached in December.
The UK aims to avoid checks and controls between the two countries via a future economic trade deal. Barnier repeated on Wednesday that the UK government was not able to ‘cherry pick’ its withdrawal terms from the economic bloc.
Barnier said on Tuesday that plans to leave the single market and customs union would require contingency planning for the border issue on the island of Ireland. He also stressed that the EU's publication was a draft and will be subject to revision from the remaining 27 member states of the Union.
Prime Minister Theresa May will outline the government’s stance on the UK’s future outside the EU during a speech on Friday.
It will be the last of six ‘Road to Brexit’ speeches given by cabinet ministers to clarify the government position on the UK’s departure and plans for future relationship with the bloc.
Following the speeches. many critics from within the EU have labelled the UK government proposals as fanciful, with European Council president Donald Tusk calling them ‘pure illusion’.