Varadkar ‘surprised and disappointed’ at Brexit talks failure

Irish PM said a deal had been agreed.

DUBLIN — Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar expressed major disappointment at U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May for backing down on a deal on the status of the Irish border.

The EU and U.K. failed to reach an agreement on sufficient progress toward a Brexit deal Monday following a lunch between May and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

The Irish deal, agreed early Monday, would have meant EU rules and standards being applied equally throughout the island of Ireland after the U.K leaves the EU in March 2019.

Speaking in Dublin on Monday evening, a clearly frustrated Varadkar said: “I am surprised and disappointed with the British government over failure to reach agreement in Brexit talks.”

He said the wording on a border deal had been agreed earlier in the day but a conversation between May and Arlene Foster, leader of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, on the issue of “regulatory alignment” appeared to have derailed the agreement.

Insisting there was “no hidden agenda” — a reference to claims from some Northern Irish unionists that he’s pushing for a united Ireland — Varadkar said “we do not want a border in the Irish Sea. Ireland’s position is Europe’s position.”

In a statement delivered at Stormont, home of the Northern Irish Assembly, DUP leader Foster said her party would “not accept any form of regulatory divergence which separates Northern Ireland economically or politically from the rest of the U.K.”

She added that the U.K. government “understands the position of this party.”

Talks to resolve the Irish border situation will continue in the coming days ahead of a two-day European Council summit starting on December 14.

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