Brexit will be an exercise in damage limitation – Barnier
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The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on Monday warned Britain that its departure from the bloc later this week would have “negative consequences” and only ever be an exercise in “damage limitation”, Al Jazeera reports.
France 24 reports that during a speech at Queen’s University Belfast, Barnier said that nobody had yet convinced him of the “added value of Brexit”.
“It is absolutely clear that there will be negative consequences. Whatever agreement we reach on our future relationship, Brexit will always be a matter of damage limitation.”
Barnier also used his Irish visit to reiterate the need for checks on some goods travelling from Britain to Northern Ireland – which Johnson maintains will not be needed.
BBC reports that UK’s choices make frictionless trade ‘impossible, adding that the Brexit deal means Northern Ireland will follow EU rules on agricultural and manufactured goods – the rest of the UK will not. Additionally, the whole of the UK will leave the EU’s customs union but Northern Ireland will continue to enforce the EU’s customs code at its ports. This means some new checks and processes for goods moving between Northern Ireland and other parts of the UK.
