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These Guidelines reflect Ireland's unique concerns regarding the withdrawal negotiations – to support and protect the achievements, benefits and commitments of the Peace Process, to avoid a hard border, and to protect the Common Travel Area.
The Guidelines also recognise the desirability of moving on to discuss the future relationship between the EU and the UK once sufficient progress has been made on the withdrawal issues, as well as the likely need for transitional arrangements.
The outcome is a major endorsement of the Government’s approach and is a reflection of the government’s focused campaign of strategic engagement with EU Member States and the EU institutions over the past 10 months which has seen over 400 engagements.
The statement agreed by the European Council acknowledges that in the event of a united Ireland, brought about in accordance with the Good Friday Agreement, the entire territory of such a united Ireland would legally be part of the European Union. This provides reassurance on this aspect of the Agreement, regardless of the status of the UK within the EU.
Now that the overall approach to the negotiations has been set out by the EU, the Government is publishing today a comprehensive document on Ireland and the negotiations on the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union under Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union. This document reflects the findings and outcomes of the extensive preparatory work and consultations undertaken to date and demonstrates how these will be brought to bear in Ireland’s approach to the negotiations in the weeks and months ahead.
Given that the EU’s initial negotiating position is now clear, the Government will intensify its focus on the economic implications of Brexit, including on domestic policy measures to reinforce the competitiveness of the Irish economy, to protect it from potential negative impacts of Brexit, and to pursue all possible opportunities that might arise.
In order to underpin this, Government will prepare a further paper on economic implications of the Brexit challenge. [...]