DAVOS (Sputnik) – Ireland wants to see clarifications from the United Kingdom on how it intends to move forward after the EU withdrawal deal was rejected in the UK parliament, a spokesman of the Department of Finance of the Republic of Ireland told Sputnik.
« The Agreement, with its backstop provisions, is the only agreement on the table that provides the essential legal guarantee to avoid a hard border [between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland] in any circumstances and protect the Good Friday Agreement in all its parts. What is needed now is clarity from the UK on how it proposes to move forward, and ultimately what it wants to achieve », the spokesman said.
He called the defeat that the EU-approved deal suffered in the UK House of Commons « disappointing but not unexpected ».
« Ireland remains firmly of the view that the only way to ensure an orderly UK withdrawal from the EU is to ratify the Withdrawal Agreement as agreed between the EU and the British government.
