When EU negotiators signed off in December on the joint report that was supposed to wrap up the phase one talks on UK withdrawal they included a “no backsliding” clause. So when we came to trying to get agreement on the Withdrawal Agreement, we were inevitably back in renegotiation territory. Status quoThus we now return to the status quo, pre-Withdrawal Agreement treaty text, and the “fudge” that was December’s agreement, a formula based on an unwillingness to reconcile the unreconcilable elements of the UK’s Brexit red lines. So Monday’s deal is not in effect a diplomatic triumph for Ireland, but rather a holding of the line, back where the line was in December. And London can say to the DUP that it is still holding the line against a border in the Irish Sea.

Source: The Irish Times March 19, 2018 18:22 UTC