(Bloomberg) -- The U.K.'s proposals on avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic are “legally unworkable,” the chairman of the regulator and trade group for Irish lawyers said.
“The U.K. has failed to advance any workable proposals, still less solutions that might be agreeable” to the EU on the border, Paul McGarry of the Council of the Bar of Ireland, said in an emailed statement on Thursday in Dublin. “It is important for the EU27 to hold firm and ensure that the legal status of Northern Ireland is determined before the U.K. exit.”
Norway's arrangement with the EU is the only “existing model” that could work, McGarry said. Norway is part of the European Economic Area, meaning it has access to the single market for goods and service. Finding a way to avoid a so-called hard border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic has become the main sticking point in the Brexit negotiations.
To contact the reporter on this story: Peter Flanagan in Dublin at pflanagan23@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ambereen Choudhury at achoudhury@bloomberg.net, Dara Doyle
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