Irish PM Varadkar satisfied with Brexit deal

Dublin, Dec 8 (IANS) Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Friday that he was satisfied that the London-Brussels agreement on Brexit had met all Irish Republic demands, including maintaining an invisible border with the British province of Northern Ireland, requested by his government.

The deal agreed between the UK and the EU proposed that both jurisdictions on the island would avoid regulatory divergences and thus protect the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement in all its parts, said Indian-origin leader Varadkar.

The breakthrough signalled that any re-establishment of a hard border on the island would be avoided and that Ulster province's citizens would continue to have the right to Irish and EU citizenship as established in the Good Friday peace agreement, Efe news reported.

"Today is a very significant day for everyone on the island of Ireland, for our neighbouring island, and for all of our fellow members of the European Union," he said.

Varadkar added: "We have achieved all we set out to achieve in phase one of these negotiations. We have the assurances and guarantees we need from the UK and support for them from the EU."

The Irish leader said he was "satisfied" that sufficient progress had now been made on the Irish issues and that "Now, we can move on to work out the detail of what has been agreed and talk about transition phase, free trade and the new relationship between the EU and the UK".

The London and Brussels agreement suggested that Northern Ireland will have fewer obstacles to access the European single market and its customs union, thus facilitating the free movement of goods, services and people with the Irish Republic.

However, British Prime Minister Theresa May also assured that the Northern Ireland province would leave the EU as requested by the Unionist Democratic Party (UDP), May's vital partner propping up her minority government at Westminster.

Ulster Unionists, pro-British and Brexit supporters had warned that they did not desire any special provisions to distance Northern Ireland from the UK as they feared it could open a future gateway to the Emerald Island's political reunification.

To this effect, Varadkar stressed, echoing the Ulster Unionist's community concerns that the Irish government had "no hidden agenda" and there was no question of the Irish Republic "exploiting Brexit as a means of moving to a united Ireland without consent" stressing that the Good Friday Agreement was protected.

Varadkar said: "We want to build bridges, not borders".