UK May Says EU-UK Border In Irish Sea Proposed In Brexit Talks Unacceptable

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st September, 2018) UK Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday said that the EU-proposed border in the Irish Sea was unacceptable.

"Northern Ireland would effectively remain in the customs union and parts of the single market, permanently separated economically from the rest of the UK by a border down the Irish Sea ... It is something I will never agree to, indeed in my judgment it is something no British prime minister would ever agree to," May said.

The United Kingdom has previously refused to accept the European Union's proposal to check goods leaving the UK mainland at a border in the Irish Sea.

London rejected the idea because it envisaged a different constitutional and territorial status for Northern Ireland. London has repeatedly voiced its concerns that intensifying control at the border could provoke tensions.

"We need serious engagement on resolving the two big problems in negotiations and we stand ready," the prime minister noted.

The United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in a referendum in June 2016 and is expected to do so by late March 2019.