Nowhere near ready for unity - EU backing of Irish unity clause

The EU’s declaration on potential Irish unity has been hailed as a diplomatic coup for the Taoiseach. 

Enda Kenny himself described the outcome of the European summit in Brussels as “a huge endorsement of the Government’s approach to the Brexit negotiations and a clear recognition of the unique and specific challenges facing Ireland”.

That might be overstating things a bit. Both the council and the European Commission, along with most EU leaders, had already accepted the difficulty posed by a return to a hard border between the North and the Republic while endorsement of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement — which specifically allows for unification — is nothing new. Indeed, a Commission Task Force on Northern Ireland has been in place for more than a decade and has already channeled hundreds of millions of euro to support devolved government in the North.