The newly “elected” Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was in Brussels for his first European Union summit today.
Varadkar practically told the EU officials that everyone in Ireland did not want the UK to leave the EU. Bizarre behaviour considering the ordinary decent UK voter couldn’t care less what the Irish Prime Minister thinks.
“That is ultimately a decision for them, however, and that may change. Countries can take positions, often very strong positions, they are often negotiating positions, and yet the final outcome might be more favourable,” he said.
“While Britain says they intend to leave the customs union and the single market, they also say they want a Free Trade Agreement, and while many of the elements of a free trade agreement, while not being the same as the customs union, may not be that far from that.”
He went onto say that he’d prefer the UK to stay in rather than being given more time to negotiate:
“I would rather have a good deal for Ireland in time, than one that doesn’t work for us in a shorter time period. When it comes to issues relating to the border… it will be difficult to determine the final shape of that until we know what the new trade arrangements are between the UK and the EU,” he said.
He continued that he wants to see no border, either hard border or economic between northern Ireland the republic:
“Brexit is a British policy, it’s not an Irish policy. But we have objectives, some strong objectives too, just as the British may have their views on how to Brexit should take shape, we have ours. We want to retain the normal trading relationships there has been between the two islands for many decades.”