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European Union leaders will express concern on Friday over a lack of progress in talks with London on how to avoid reimposing controls at the border between British-ruled Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic after Brexit. Leaders of the 27 countries that wEU leaders worried over Irish border issue in Brexit talks
European Union leaders will express concern on Friday over a lack of progress in talks with London on how to avoid reimposing controls at the border between British-ruled Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic after Brexit. Leaders of the 27 countries that will remain in the EU after Britain leaves next year will take stock of negotiations on a withdrawal agreement and on a political declaration on what future relations with London should look like. A draft document outlining conclusions of their European Council meeting in Brussels singles out the lack of an operational arrangement for the Irish border, called by EU leaders a backstop solution. The backstop solution has been agreed in very general terms in December, but there has been no consensus since on how to put it in place in practice by Brexit day in March 2019. «The European Council expresses its concern that no substantial progress has yet been achieved on agreeing a backstop solution for Ireland/Northern Ireland,» the draft conclusions, seen by Reuters, said. Britain and the EU want to keep a free flow of people and goods over the border without returning to checkpoints, symbols of the three decades of violence in... Read more