Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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125. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the meetings he has had with his counterparts regarding the need to conclude definitively all issues relating to the need to avoid a border on this island prior to the EU-British negotiations moving to the next stage and dealing with trade issues. [51767/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I attended the General Affairs Council (Article 50) on Monday 20 November, at which the EU’s Chief Negotiator, Michel Barnier, provided an update to the EU27 Member States on the state of play with regard to the EU-UK negotiations.

This provided an important opportunity to take stock of progress in light of the forthcoming decision by the European Council in December on whether or not sufficient progress has been made on the exit issues in order to enable discussions on the framework for a future EU-UK relationship and transitional arrangements to begin.

In this regard, Mr Barnier reported that, while some progress was made in the latest round of negotiations on 9-10 November, there is a lot of work remaining in order to achieve sufficient progress across all of the exit issues - citizens’ rights, the UK’s financial settlement and the issues unique to Ireland.

I will meet collectively again with all my EU27 counterparts at the General Affairs Council (Article 50) on Tuesday 12 December, shortly before the European Council on 14-15 December.

In the meantime, I have been undertaking an intensive round of bilateral contacts with my EU counterparts, to reaffirm the importance of making sufficient progress across all three exit issues, including the Irish-specific issues. I met with Michel Barnier again in Brussels on 24 November and also met with my counterparts from Poland, Hungary and Spain on the same day, in the margins of the Eastern Partnership Summit. I have spoken to a number of my counterparts by telephone over the past week, including with my colleagues from Germany, Luxembourg and Slovakia, and will continue to do so in the coming days. I also joined the Taoiseach in his meeting with the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, in Dublin on Friday 1 December.

During all of these contacts, I have been underlining that the negotiations have reached the point where firm, explicit commitments are required from the UK, which will need to be reflected in the Withdrawal Agreement. The achievement of sufficient progress does not mean that all issues need to be definitively settled and the detail worked out. But what is essential is that the path to the final outcome is mapped out.

This includes protecting the Good Friday Agreement in all its parts, and the gains of the peace process, including avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland. In this regard, I have recalled that Ireland continues to believe that the optimal solution would be for the UK to remain in the Customs Union and the Single Market. But this is ultimately a decision for the UK Government to make. If the UK continues to rule out this option, the solutions that it offers must be concrete and workable. This should include an acceptance by the UK that the risks posed by the emergence on the island of Ireland of regulatory divergence from the rules of the Internal Market and the Customs Union must be avoided.

I have also taken the opportunity to express Ireland’s strong support for the work of Michel Barnier and his team and to acknowledge the continuing solidarity and support we are enjoying from our EU partners in relation to the Irish specific issues, which has been further reaffirmed in all of my meetings and contacts with partners over recent days and weeks.

I have also been stressing Ireland’s commitment to continue working closely with the Commission Task Force to advance these issues and our hope that, with hard work and political will, the European Council will be able to take a positive decision next month.