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The Irish border question must be clarified by this summer, the SDLP leader has said.<\/p>\nThe Irish border question must be clarified by this summer, the SDLP leader has said.<\/p>\n
Any hardening of the frontier will be a deliberate violation of Northern Ireland’s political process by the British Government, Colum Eastwood added.<\/p>\n
He addressed party members at the SDLP annual conference at Titanic Belfast and urged another New Ireland Forum amid change caused by Brexit, saying: “The Irish Government must know that we need full clarity on the border this side of the summer.<\/p>\n
“We can’t let it slip until the EU Council meeting in October.<\/p>\n
“The backstop is not our first choice, but it is our ultimate protection.”<\/p>\n
The backstop means in the absence of another solution, regulations relating to North-South matters – like the all-island economy – would continue to be aligned with the EU after Brexit in a year’s time.<\/p>\n
It was part of a December blueprint agreed between the British Government and the EU.<\/p>\n
The border is the subject of intense discussion at official level in Brussels after the EU agreed to go on to discuss transitional arrangements in the Brexit negotiations.<\/p>\n
Mr Eastwood added: “The only people who will actually end up delivering that backstop are the hardened Brexiteers who are determined to inflict economic self-harm.<\/p>\n
“Anything short of these proposals, any hardening of the border, will be a deliberate violation of our political process by the British Government. They have no right.”<\/p>\n
He said the Good Friday Agreement which instituted north\/south arrangements was sovereign, adding: “That Agreement belongs to the people of Ireland and we are only people with the right to change it.<\/p>\n
“There are increasing numbers of politicians on both islands carelessly queuing up to rip it apart.<\/p>\n
“We cannot and we will not allow it.”<\/p>\n
Mr Eastwood said the Good Friday Agreement had come of age, and told the crowd: “If Good Friday 20 years ago was to be the final destination of slow learners – let us not allow it to fall victim to fast wreckers.<\/p>\n
“The choice remains the same.<\/p>\n
“The Irish and British peoples across this island can retreat from each other or we can again choose to work, live and govern together.<\/p>\n
“In time, when we are forced to look history full in the eye, let us not say that we narrowed our minds and thus narrowed the horizon.<\/p>\n
“Let us instead say that we acted with courage, generosity and vision.”<\/p>\n