EU: Irish border still issue in no-deal Brexit

24/1/2019 0:48

        The European Union's chief Brexit negotiator says if Britain withdraws without a deal with the EU, he still wants to avoid a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Michel Barnier said at a conference on Wednesday the EU will have to protect consumers and businesses with checks on British goods if Brexit takes place on March 29 without an agreement. Barnier said: "We will still have to do checks and controls somewhere." He didn't specific where the inspections might happen. He said it would be most challenging in the Republic of Ireland, an EU member country that shares a land border with the U.K.'s Northern Ireland. Reintroducing a hard border there after a peace deal that ended decades of sectarian and nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland is a sensitive issue. Barnier said: "We will have to find out an operational way to carrying out checks and controls without putting back in place a border."