Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said Monday that "putting a time-limit on an insurance mechanism, which is what the backstop is, effectively means that it's not a backstop at all." Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes says the authorities will "deliver a system that will make it easy and straightforward for EU citizens to obtain status." Britain's Brexit minister, Robin Walker, says the agreement is the first of its kind for Britain with a member of the European Union. EU foreign ministers arriving for a regular monthly meeting Monday also insisted they would need a very convincing reason to extend the March 29 departure date. Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl said "this is the text we all invested ourselves in."

Source: ABC News January 21, 2019 09:57 UTC