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One of Ireland\u2019s chief negotiators has said after the EU accepted the Brexit draft proposals there was a collective sense of melancholy in Brussels.<\/p>\nOne of Ireland\u2019s chief negotiators has said after the EU accepted the Brexit draft proposals there was a collective sense of melancholy in Brussels.<\/p>\n
Rory Montgomery, Second Secretary General of the European Union Division, said the mood in the room last week was one of loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very strange occasion,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Nobody was pleased or happy about this, and was compounded by the huge uncertainty of where the politics of this is going<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been involved in a lot of negotiations over the years at EU level, it\u2019s normal at a minimum, at the end of a negotiation to have a sense of relief, or a sense of contentment, or even elation in some cases, for instance, it took me five days to come down from the Good Friday Agreement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was no such sense in Brussels five days ago, it was melancholy, it was a sense of loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody was pleased or happy about this, and was compounded by the huge uncertainty of where the politics of this is going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Montgomery was speaking today at an event for Irish Local Authority representatives on how to prepare for the UK leaving the EU.<\/p>\n
The one-time adviser to former Taoiseach Enda Kenny was standing in for an absent Minister of Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney.<\/p>\n
He added Brexit has already had a negative effect on Northern Ireland and an \u201cextraordinary destabilizing impact on community relations and political structures\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese have been extraordinarily difficult negotiations, my colleagues, at times, have literally been in the next room as discussions were taking place, we were clearly the country most clearly concerned by this,\u201d Mr Montgomery said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Good Friday Agreement itself is premised on the fact that Northern Ireland of course is different.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe backstop of course would not be our first choice, but we, the EU, we\u2019re extremely open to any negotiation of an alternative which would make it unnecessary, where the future relationship could solve theses problems, and that would be everybody\u2019s preference.<\/p>\n
\u201cAcross the board, it\u2019s bad news, with a few bright spots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Montgomery added the support from the EU and member states had been indispensable to Ireland, a sentiment echoed by Mr Kenny earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cEurope has been rock-solid in support of Ireland\u2019s position here and in support of its own program for the future of the European Union,\u201d Mr Kenny said at the Limerick Chamber Regional Leaders Program.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 27 members of the union are completely united in the agreement that has been put on the table and that has been accepted by the British Government.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe British have got to sort this out for themselves now.\u201d<\/p>\n
A five-day debate on the European Union Withdrawal Agreement began in House of Commons today before the the make-or-break vote on December 11.<\/p>\n