Brexit and the Irish border
The impact of Brexit on the Irish border and its adjacent polities involves changes in trade, customs, immigration checks, local economies, services, recognition of qualifications, medical cooperation, and other matters, as it is the only land border between the United Kingdom and the European Union.
After the UK Parliament voted to leave the European Union, all parties said that they want to avoid a hard border in Ireland, due particularly to the border's historically sensitive nature. Border issues were one of three areas of focused negotiation in the Withdrawal Agreement. Following the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union on 31 January 2020, this border is also the frontier between the EU and an external country.
The Northern Ireland Protocol of the Brexit withdrawal agreement commits the UK and the EU to maintaining an open border in Ireland, so that the de facto frontier is the Irish Sea border between the two islands. This requires the continued application of the Common Travel Area as well as free trade of goods between Ireland and Northern Ireland. The latter requires the UK to apply European law in Northern Ireland with respect to these areas, with jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in the interpretation of that law.
Background
Irish independence
In 1922, the 26-county Irish Free State formally seceded from the United Kingdom as a self-governing dominion under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, setting the stage for full national independence, while the six-county Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom. Consequently, the dividing line between these two parts of the island became an international border. Trade in goods and services across this frontier became subject to differing tax and tariff arrangements and an infrastructure of customs posts was put in place at designated crossing points. All traffic was subject to inspection by the jurisdiction it was entering. This could entail full vehicle searches with consequent delay and inconvenience. However, passport checks were not applied because the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland were part of the Common Travel Area.Closer links
A number of bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements made goods checks less intrusive; the completion of the European Single Market in 1992 meant that checks on goods were phased out. However, during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, there were British military checkpoints on main border crossings and UK security forces made some, although not all, of the remaining crossings impassable. In 2005, in a phased implementation of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the last of the border checkpoints was removed.Good Friday Agreement
Since about 2005, the border has been perceived as being invisible, with little or no physical infrastructure, as the security barriers and checkpoints were removed due to processes put in place by the Good Friday Agreement signed in 1998. This agreement has the status of both an international treaty between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, as well as an agreement of the parties within Northern Ireland.Following Brexit, the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland becomes an external EU border. In theory, a "hard" border could return, with both fewer and supervised crossing posts, to support the necessary customs infrastructure. Both EU and UK negotiating teams made clear that this outcome would not be acceptable in any final exit agreement.
US Senator George Mitchell, who chaired the negotiations for the Belfast Agreement, has commented that he believes the creation of a border control system between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland might jeopardise the agreement. Research published on 18 February 2019 by Irish Senator Mark Daly and two UNESCO chairmen indicated that reinstating a hard border would result in the return of violence.
Brexit referendum in Northern Ireland
In the June 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, Northern Ireland voted 55.8% to 44.2% in favour of remaining in the European Union. Support for remaining or leaving was largely divided along sectarian lines, with a majority in Catholic areas favouring Remain and a majority in Protestant areas favouring Leave. In a November 2018 opinion poll commissioned by BBC Northern Ireland and RTÉ, 61% of those polled believed that Brexit should not go ahead if the price is a hard border.Hard border
In the context of Brexit, a "hard border" means one where there is a limited number of authorised crossing points, staffed by customs officers and police, supported in times of tension by military forces. Drivers of vehicles crossing are required to declare goods in carriage, commercial carriers must produce bills of lading and evidence that the goods comply with the minimum standards of the territory being entered. Tariffs may be payable. This was the position that pertained on the border from 1923 until the Single European Act in 1993..Withdrawal negotiations
Positions on the Irish border
United Kingdom
The UK government has said that Brexit will not mean a return of the hard border.According to statements in 2016 by the then UK Prime Minister Theresa May and Irish Taoiseach Enda Kenny, it is intended to maintain this arrangement after the United Kingdom leaves the EU.
In September 2016, the UK Brexit Secretary, David Davis, stated that the UK government would not seek a return to a hard border between the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
In October 2016, The Guardian reported that British proposals to avoid a hard border, by 'seeking to shift the frontline of immigration controls to Ireland's ports and airports', had received "signals support" by some members of Enda Kenny's government. However, by 2017, a spokesperson for the new Irish government, under Leo Varadkar, stated that these reports had been "misinformed", and that there was "no question of UK officials acting as border agents in Ireland".
In its white paper on Brexit, the United Kingdom government reiterated its commitment to the Good Friday Agreement. With regard to Northern Ireland's status, it said that the UK government's "clearly-stated preference is to retain Northern Ireland's current constitutional position: as part of the UK, but with strong links to Ireland".
Republic of Ireland
The Irish Government's position has been to reduce public mention of border checks to avoid confrontation with opposition parties in the Dáil and to calm nationalist and unionist concerns in Northern Ireland. Repeated statements have been made by senior politicians in government denying plans are being made for a hard border. Concerns have been raised by opposition parties that the government is not being forthright about the risk of, and planning for, a hard border. A private admonishment by Tánaiste Simon Coveney of Minister for Transport Shane Ross in the wake of a press conference was caught on the live microphones. In reference to border checks, Coveney stated, "We can’t get into where they’ll be at this stage. They could be in the sea. They could be...but once you start talking about checks anywhere near the border people will start delving into that and all of a sudden we’ll be the Government that re-introduced a physical border on the island of Ireland".In a February 2019 Sky Data poll, 79% of respondents supported the Irish government holding out for a legal guarantee that there will be no hard border, even if it risks a no-deal Brexit on 29 March. In the same poll, 81% supported cutting economic ties with the UK if forced to choose, with 19% supporting cutting ties with the EU in favour of the UK to maintain the open border.
Northern Ireland
There have been worries among unionists that the Irish government's position is a covert attempt to gain more power over the region in order to promote a united Ireland, a position the Irish government has denied. The Democratic Unionist Party opposes a hard Irish border and wishes to maintain the Common Travel Area. The DUP was the only major party of Northern Ireland to oppose the Good Friday Agreement.A referendum on the reunification of Ireland was suggested by the Sinn Féin leader Martin McGuinness immediately after the Brexit referendum results were announced, a stance reiterated by the new party leader Mary Lou McDonald in 2018.
A week after the Brexit referendum the then First Minister of Northern Ireland, the DUP's Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness issued a joint letter in which they said that the border must not become a catalyst for illegal activity or create an incentive for those who wish to undermine the peace process.
European Union
In April 2017, the European Council agreed that, in the event of a united Ireland, Northern Ireland could rejoin the EU under Ireland's existing membership.In January 2019, German foreign minister Heiko Maas urged British MPs not to let the UK leave the EU without a deal, saying that "some people call us stubborn, but the truth is avoiding a hard border in Ireland is a fundamental concern for the EU, a union that more than anything else serves one purpose – to build and maintain peace in Europe". Nevertheless, the European Commission's chief spokesman Margaritis Schinas stated on 23 January that it is "obvious" that there would be a hard border were the United Kingdom to leave the EU without a deal.
In April 2019, former WTO director-general and European trade commissioner Pascal Lamy said that "staying in a customs union after Brexit won't resolve the Irish border issue... Leaving the single market reintroduces a border – the thickness of which depends on the degree of regulatory divergence."