{"id":3454,"date":"2017-09-12T15:46:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-12T14:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qpol.qub.ac.uk\/?p=3454"},"modified":"2017-09-12T15:46:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-12T14:46:00","slug":"eu-remarkable-flexibility-ni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/eu-remarkable-flexibility-ni\/","title":{"rendered":"Remarkable flexibility on Northern Ireland from the EU \u2013 the UK government should take note"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The European Commission has announced the guiding principles<\/a> for its position regarding the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland after Brexit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main message is that, when all is said and done, the solutions to this knotty problem lie in the hands of the UK government. As Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar wryly remarked<\/a>, \u201cit\u2019s Britain that has decided to leave\u201d, and so it must manage the consequences of this decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, the commission is concerned that the UK government\u2019s approach<\/a> to the Irish border has so far centred fairly narrowly on preserving its \u201cinvisibility\u201d, on the Common Travel Area, on the rights of Irish citizens, and on funding for peace programmes. Chief negotiator Michel Barnier has also called out the UK government for attempting to use the EU\u2019s flexibility for the Irish border as a test case<\/a> for the future UK-EU trading relationship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its own guidelines, the EU is attempting to move the discussion forward by outlining a framework for solutions that are unique to Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue reading.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article originally appeared on The Conversation. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0featured\u00a0image<\/a><\/em>\u00a0of the European Commission representative Michel Barnier visiting an Irish border crossing<\/em>\u00a0has been used courtesy of a\u00a0<\/em>Creative Commons license.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The unique situation of Northern Ireland within the UK needs to be stressed when it comes to Brexit says Dr Katy Hayward. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2478,"featured_media":3325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[466,42,98,106],"class_list":["post-3454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","tag-border","tag-brexit","tag-eu","tag-northern-ireland"],"mb":[],"acf":{"authors":{"simple_value_formatted":"