Coveney: No Brexit deal can breach withdrawal agreement

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney. Photo : Liam McBurney/PA Wire

There can be no Brexit deal that breaches the UK's Withdrawal Agreement, the Foreign Affairs Minister has warned.

Simon Coveney said any deal which will be made this week will have to respect the agreement which came into effect in February.

"I don’t see how, even if there is a compromise agreed this week, that that agreement would be ratified if the UK, in two pieces of domestic legislation, is breaching the withdrawal agreement, which isn’t even 12 months old."

Mr Coveney said he does not see how the European Parliament would be able to approve any deal if the UK Parliament passes either the Internal Markets Bill or the Taxation Bill. 

Both return to the House of Commons this week. Mr Coveney said he believes these are merely negotiating tools.

"I think the British government understands that; I see this as a negotiating strategy to try to gain leverage in these negotiations,” he said.

“Instead of being distracted by those two pieces of legislation, I think the EU and the UK negotiators need to focus on getting a deal here that’s in the interests of both sides.”

Mr Coveney told RTÉ's This Week programme that he believes a deal is more likely than not because of the "significant" consequences of a no-deal scenario arising on January 1.

“What we are at now is the very final attempts to close that out. Anybody who has been involved in these negotiations won’t have been surprised that it wasn’t possible for the two negotiating teams to finalise the deal in a way that was smooth and managed and predictable."

After negotiations between the EU and Britain today British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are due to speak again tomorrow.

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