The leader of the DUP is holding “wide-ranging” meetings with EU officials in Brussels over the next few days in a bid to break the Brexit deadlock ahead of a looming no-deal deadline.
Arlene Foster flew in from Belfast in the early hours of Tuesday morning and met with chief negotiator Michel Barnier and other officials, as well as representatives from member states.
The right-wing party, which is propping up Theresa May’s minority government in Parliament, is seen as key to a deal on the Northern Ireland border – and has therefore been granted huge access in the EU capital.
Critics of the government said Ms Foster had effectively “taken over” Brexit negotiations from Theresa May – as she prepared to meet representatives of member states, negotiators, officials, and top EU parliament figures.
“We have a very wide range of meetings within the Commission, we’ve just come from a meeting with Mr Barnier,” Diane Dodds, the DUP’s MEP who is accompanying Ms Foster on the trip, told reporters on Tuesday afternoon.
Speaking at the same press conference Ms Foster accused the EU of not understanding British unionism with its plans to solve the Northern Irish border.
“It is vital that the EU from their perspective understands the sensitivities around Northern Ireland and that we’re going to be the only part of the United Kingdom with a land border with the EU after we leave next year,” she said.
It is vital that the EU from their perspective understands the sensitivities around Northern Ireland
The party leader added that she would not accept any checks between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, rejecting the EU’s bid to “de-dramatise” them.
She has in recent days appeared to shoot down a nascent bid by the British government to compromise on checks across the Irish sea, describing her red-lines as “blood red”. An EU bid to compromise by having checks done in advance appeared not to impress the Ms Foster either.
“Our own government was very clear, and we reiterated the issue last week with the prime minister that there cannot be any customs or regulatory barriers between ourselves and the rest of the United Kingdom – both ways,” she said.
“It’s not just a case of regulations between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, it’s also between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I think that’s very clear, we’ve made that very clear.”
The DUP almost certainly has the power to sink any deal signed by the government because Theresa May threw away her parliamentary majority in a snap general election last year, and now relies on DUP MPs to pass legislation with a confidence-and-supply arrangement.
Though EU sources in Brussels have been optimistic about a deal, Downing Street yesterday suggested caution.
British officials will be in town this week for back-room discussions as the two sides hope to secure some kind of progress before a European Council summit next week, which will be attended by Theresa May and the EU27 leaders.
Labour MP David Lammy, a supporter of the Best for Britain campaign, said: “Arlene Foster is not an MP and not even first minister but she holds the trump card in these negotiations.
“It is telling that now she has gone to Brussels to take over from the prime minister as we get to the crunch. Theresa May and her government are in the pocket of the DUP.”
Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, said of the meeting that he was “continuing discussions with Northern Irish political leaders today” and “working hard to explain and de-dramatise the backstop”, referring to the EU solution for preventing a hard border on the island of Ireland.
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