Securing guarantees on what happens to the Irish Border before Brexit talks move to future EU-UK arrangements was “not only reasonable but needed”, Spain’s minister for European affairs has said. Speaking on a visit to Dublin, Jorge Toledo, the Spanish secretary of state for European affairs, said it was important to reach an agreement with the UK on preserving the current Common Travel Area between Ireland and Britain and protecting the Belfast Agreement and the EU’s single market. He was discussing the EU’s recently leaked paper that suggested Northern Ireland would effectively have to remain in the customs union and single market to avoid a hard border post-Brexit. The Spanish minister supported the call by the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier for London to propose solutions to avoid a hard Irish Border before a key summit of EU leaders in mid-December. “It would be very, very extraordinary to say and it would be an offence to Spain, ” he said.

Source: The Irish Times November 22, 2017 18:56 UTC