European Council

Mark Durkan Excerpts

Tuesday 14th March 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

My hon. Friend may have been looking at the same report as my hon. Friend the Member for North East Somerset (Mr Rees-Mogg) in relation to the sums that we pay. As I said in my response to him, the vote on 23 June 2016 was about many things. Obviously, in terms of leaving the European Union, one of the things that people were clear about is that we would not continue paying huge sums into the EU every year.

[Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP)]

Is it the Prime Minister’s intention that both the common travel area and the Good Friday agreement will be specifically named as features in the framework for future relations between the UK and the EU? Does she accept the Taoiseach’s point about the signal importance of having the consent provisions of the Good Friday agreement specifically reflected in a new UK-EU treaty to make it clear that Northern Ireland, as one part of the UK, could elect to rejoin the EU without necessitating article 49 negotiations and that the Barroso doctrine would not be an impediment?

[The Prime Minister]

We have been very clear about the importance of maintaining and delivering on the agreements that have been made in relation to Northern Ireland, and that issue is very clear to other member states of the European Union. Of course the common travel area existed long before either the Republic or the United Kingdom were part of the European Union, and one of the objectives I set out as we look to the future negotiations is that we will be looking to maintain the common travel area.