A FRESH warning that Brexit could damage policing on the island of Ireland has been issued by a group of politicians who investigated the issue after claims of potential problems were made by senior police officers earlier this year, claims which The National reported and which were largely ignored by the pro-Brexit unionist press.
The new claims concern the relationship between the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the Republic’s Garda Síochána which has been growing ever stronger since the former force was founded in 2001 to replace the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
The British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly’s Sovereign Matters Committee carried out a study into Brexit’s effects on policing across Ireland. Two politicians from Ireland, Declan Breathnach TD and Senator Paul Coghlan, were joined by DUP MO Jeffrey Donaldson and Nigel Mills, the Conservative MP, in penning a report entitled Illicit Trade and the Border which the Assembly Committee published yesterday.
The report noted successes in tackling the cross-border trade in illicit fuel and other goods but sounded an alarm linked to Brexit.
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According to reports in Ireland yesterday, the rapporteurs said that Garda Commissioner Drew Harris had told them that the absence of agreements on sharing information “could undermine” efforts to tackle cross-border crime.
The PSNI raised concerns about the “potential societal impact” if there was no agreement and warned of “potential unrest” if there were higher levels of unemployment “particularly in the agricultural sector”.
The report concluded: “The Committee is concerned by reports that the strong and effective collaborative relationship between the PSNI and An Garda Siochána could be undermined were the United Kingdom and European Union unable to agree on a formal withdrawal agreement, particularly with regard to data sharing and the transfer of criminal suspects.”
Slovenia hails EU-supporting Irish stance
FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron’s stance against the enlargement of the European Union may worry some independence supporters, but his high-handed change of policy is affecting the Balkans already.
Negotiations were underway for Serbia and Montenegro to join the EU, and North Macedonia and Albania also want to join, but Macron said “non” until there is a review of the whole policy on enlargement – though Scotland having been part of the EU will make it easier for a post-independence rejoining of the bloc.
Slovenia, which gained independence in 1991 and joined the EU in 2014, regrets Macron’s veto, but its Foreign Minister Miro Cerar said in an interview yesterday about how the EU has stood together over Brexit.
He said: “There are some positive effects on the part of the European Union regarding Brexit because we in a way upheld our unity during this process.
“We showed that we are able to stand behind a small state, Ireland, to protect its interests.”
A No-Deal Brexit will cause trouble for Slovenia, as it will for every other country in the EU.
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Cerar said: “There will be some consequences also for Slovenia, but the impact of hard Brexit would be definitely much stronger than if we reach and adopt the agreement, the deal which we work on.”
Nor is Slovenia afraid to stand up to the might of France, Cerar calling Macron’s stance a “historic mistake.”
He added: “We (the EU) have lost our credibility now and the consequences might be very dire.
“The European Union should do its best to embrace the region, to continue with the enlargement process and to start the negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania as soon as possible.”
Malta looks to gain from Brexit but is no ‘vulture’
AS an English-speaking country staying in the European Union where it has equal status with the other member nations despite having a population about the size of Edinburgh’s, Malta could well profit from Brexit as companies decide to relocate from the UK.
This fact was acknowledged by Kenneth Farrugia, the man who leads Finance Malta, the public-private partnership which has a role in attracting financial operators to the island which became independent from Britain in 1964 and which joined the EU in 2004, though it also remains a member of the Commonwealth.
In one of his last interviews before he leaves the office of chairman of Finance Malta, Farrugia told the Times of Malta that his country’s long-standing relationship with the UK could be helpful in attracting firms that want to relocate into the EU once the UK leaves.
He favours the so-called “passporting” model in which companies link up with existing Maltese firms without having to move fully to the island.
“We are not here to play the vulture game, like some other jurisdictions are doing,” said Farrugia, “So we said we’ll put solutions on the table to allow UK operators to sustain their operations in Europe, without having to go through the unpleasant experience of moving their whole outfit to a new country.
“If you are an operator with human resources of certain intellectual capability, who have family there, their children in schools, and a certain lifestyle – trying to relocate that completely to another jurisdiction is a nightmare, and you might run the risk of brain drain.”
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