British MPs warn post-Brexit hard Irish border becoming 'impossible'
A hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Britain’s Northern Ireland is becoming inevitable after the UK leaves the European Union, a UK parliamentary committee has said.
The Exiting the EU Committee, a panel of MPs scrutinizing the Brexit ministry, said the government's decision to withdraw from the EU seemed "impossible" to reconcile with its declared intention to maintain a "frictionless" Irish border.
The parliamentary committee said the British government's proposals for handling the issue, including using technology to create a "light touch" border, were "untested and to some extent speculative."
"We do not currently see how it will be possible to reconcile there being no border with the government's policy of leaving the single market and the customs union, which will inevitably make the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland the EU's customs border with the UK," the panel said.
Northern Ireland will be the only part of the UK to share a land border with an EU member state after the UK leaves the EU.
London wants to withdraw from the customs union — within which goods can move freely — but has said it will not reimpose border posts, which many have said might upset the last 20 years of peace in Northern Ireland.
A hard border would make passport and customs controls mandatory, hampering business ties between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The EU has required sufficient progress on the border issue as a pre-condition to launch the Brexit trade talks next year before officially leaving the bloc in 2019.
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