Hard decision on backstop would avoid harder choices later

Irish Times writes that a hard decision on backstop would avoid harder choices later.

-//- A big choice now faced by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and the small group of people who make the decisions for the country’s future is whether they should compromise on the backstop in order to provide the British with the cover they need to pass the withdrawal treaty in the House of Commons, and so avoid the risk of a no-deal Brexit.

There are downsides either way: weakening the backstop involves not just risk for the country but would represent a climbdown by Varadkar and his Tánaiste Simon Coveney – the men who brought you the bulletproof backstop. But not compromising means the British will not pass the withdrawal agreement and though the prospect of a no-deal Brexit receded this week (the most significant week at Westminster since December), such is the febrility of British politics that no outcome can be ruled out with certainty.

It is becoming accepted at the top of Government that some sort of a move on the backstop is sensible.

This is not just because it could secure a good outcome for everyone – Ireland, the UK and the European Union – but because it would avoid the possibility of a much more acutely unpleasant choice in the future: the choice, in a no-deal scenario, whether to have checks on goods at the Border, or between Ireland and the EU.

Once the choice to compromise on the backstop is made – not yet, but soon, I expect – this all becomes a matter of choreography and substance, or to put it in the words of one person participating in these matters, question of “the what and the when”.

“The what”, or the substance, is a question of the exact nature of the change to the backstop – a protocol or codicil to the treaty (the British preference) which puts EU promises on the temporary nature of the backstop into legal commitments that could be ultimately justiciable, or some sort of standalone declaration (the Irish suggestion) which amounts to the same thing but in softer terms.

The EU and the Irish will not undermine the backstop, but they will try to make it more palatable for the British. The British, for their part, must get some concession which changes it.

The substance of these matters is not yet resolved, but both sides know what they have to do.

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You can read the entire article here: The Irish Times: Hard decision on backstop would avoid harder choices later

Source: Irish Times