Greg Hands: Brussels needs to see the logic of Alternative Arrangements

Greg Hands is the Conservative MP for Chelsea and Fulham
Alex Lentati
Greg Hands21 August 2019
WEST END FINAL

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The response from Brussels to Boris Johnson’s Brexit letter, which proposed removing the Irish backstop from the withdrawal agreement, is bizarre. Donald Tusk says the Prime Minister’s polite request is “unrealistic”, claiming the backstop is a necessary insurance policy until an alternative is found. He also implied that the Government’s real agenda is to reintroduce a hard border, which he must know is untrue.

Yet realistic, workable alternative arrangements to the backstop do exist, as Mr Tusk and the Irish Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar know. Prosperity UK’s Alternative Arrangements Commission, of which I am co-chair alongside my colleague Suella Braverman, has not only showed that alternative arrangements based on existing technology can be up and running within two to three years but we have also drafted protocols to make them legally operative.

The Commission published its 250-page Final Report this summer and the protocols were drafted with the advice of leading international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills. Brussels and Dublin have been sent all the material and are fully aware of it — we even went to both capitals to present them in July.

The first protocol, Protocol AB, can be used within the existing withdrawal agreement. It incorporates a list of obligations that the UK must satisfy in order to ensure the backstop would not be triggered. The second, Protocol C, delivers alternative arrangements in any other Brexit scenario, such as a free trade agreement or no deal.

The report was published following consultation with stakeholders across Ireland and the EU and we are continuing our work by holding a conference for elected representatives from Stormont, Dublin and London in Dundalk in mid-September. The intention is to develop a dialogue and rebuild trust among those who represent the communities most affected by the border issue.

I am personally against a no-deal outcome, and have voted as such. Be that as it may, the new UK Government, led by Boris Johnson, appears to be deadly serious that we will leave the EU without a deal unless the withdrawal agreement is redrafted to replace the backstop with a specific route to Alternative Arrangements. Given the withdrawal agreement has been rejected by the Commons many times, that should be obvious.

Brussels should recognise it can accept Alternative Arrangements. Indeed, Brussels effectively conceded this via the Strasbourg Declaration, which committed both sides to start workstreams to find alternative arrangements to the backstop. We already know that following the successful passage of the Brady Amendment in January, the withdrawal agreement could be accepted by the Commons if the backstop was replaced with Alternative Arrangements.

There is a solution. It is a compromise. It prevents a hard border in Ireland. It is called Alternative Arrangements.

  • Greg Hands is the Conservative MP for Chelsea and Fulham

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