![\"\"](\"http:\/\/irishexaminerusa.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/2.41344296.jpg\")
T\u00e1naiste Simon Coveney has said the EU cannot compromise on the issue of the backstop to placate Conservative Brexiteers.<\/p>\nT\u00e1naiste Simon Coveney has said the EU cannot compromise on the issue of the backstop to placate Conservative Brexiteers.<\/p>\n
Mr Coveney said the Irish Government wanted to help Theresa May get her Brexit deal through the UK parliament, but insisted the Withdrawal Agreement was not open for renegotiation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t just about Westminster,\u201d Mr Coveney told Sky News\u2019s Ridge On Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a deal that has to get through a European parliament as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cYou can\u2019t ask Ireland to compromise on something as fundamental as a peace process and relationships linked to the Good Friday Agreement in order to get a deal through which is about placating a group within the Conservative Party who are insisting on moving the Prime Minister away from her own position.\u201d<\/p>\n
The T\u00e1naiste said the backstop was a British government construct as much as it was an EU and Irish one.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThis is about shared responsibility for Britain and Ireland as co-guarantors of a peace agreement in Northern Ireland to ensure that we don\u2019t go backwards, that we don\u2019t as an unintended consequence of Brexit see the re-emergence of a physical infrastructure between two jurisdictions, a border infrastructure that in the past has had awful memories.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThe idea that we would put a time limit to that backstop but not be able to answer the question \u2018What happens after that time limit runs out and what replaces the backstop?\u2019 \u2013 then it wouldn\u2019t be a backstop at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
He told Sophy Ridge that wording of the Withdrawal Agreement \u201cwas not going to change\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way to do this is to change the wording of the future relationship declaration that can help to provide more clarity and reassurance to Westminster,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n