DUBLIN: Not just unlikely, nor merely undesirable, but “impossible” says Britain’s closest ally about the desire to negotiate a full exit deal from the EU within the two-year time frame.
It was an unexpectedly strong intervention from Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, speaking to me on Sky News on the margins of the British Irish Council near Cardiff.
But it goes to the heart of the current shadow boxing over Article 50 between the UK Government and officials of the EU and its member states.
“It will be impossible to do all the negotiations in the contemplated two-year period, that is why there is a growing feeling in Europe that there should be a transition period,” the Taoiseach told me.
It is the second of three tiers, including firstly the so-called “divorce deal”, and lastly a final status trade deal.
EU officials believe the first two pillars need to be finished before the final deal, refusing UK officials’ position that the final deal can be negotiated in parallel with the Article 50 process.
Mr Kenny would not be drawn on the timescale for a transition deal, but privately Irish ministers have suggested three to five years to sort out the libraries of EU laws and trade arrangements into a new UK-EU deal.
