This article on the Conservative Home website (HERE) claims the EU Parliament have a report setting out a perfectly good technological solution for avoiding a hard border in Ireland. It's written by Graham Gudgin visiting Professor at the University of Ulster and Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Ulster University Economic Policy Centre. The report was also mentioned by Richard Tice in a TV interview a few weeks ago. The actual report is HERE.
Yesterday the Independent carried an item in which says the EU think the only way of avoiding a hard border in Ireland is to remain in the single market and the customs union.
You might think there is a bit of a discrepancy here. One hand of the EU says a hard border in Ireland can be avoided while the other saying it can't. Readers on the Conservative Home website were nearly unanimous in thinking the EU are just being plain awkward. So, who is right?
I think the report misunderstands the problem. The writer is talking about a high tech border between two ordinary countries who trade with each other and have a perfectly ordinary political relationship with no violent history. Hence the use of ANPR, pre cleared shipments, trusted trader schemes and various other advanced technical solutions, some of which are in use elsewhere and others perhaps not. I am sure they would all work.
The report cites various examples including the US/Canadian border and Sweden/Norway. At first I was curious why this apparently workable solution was not being considered so I read the report. It all seems fine until you get to this part describing a future scenario using Smart Border 2.0. The emphasis is mine:
This is how a normal border crossing in a Smart Border 2.0 environment could look: A company needs to move goods to a client in the UK. The company is pre-registered in the AEO database (AEO status or application for AEO Trusted Trader), a simplified export/import declaration is sent, including a unique consignment reference number. The transporting company is pre-registered in the AEO database and the driver of the truck is pre-registered in the Trusted Commercial Travellers database. The simplified export/import declaration is automatically processed and risk assessed. At the border the mobile phone of the driver is recognized/identified and a release-note is sent to the mobile phone with a permit to pass the border opening the gate automatically. A post-import supplementary declaration is submitted in the import country within the given time period. Potential controls can be carried out by mobile inspection units from EU or UK with right of access to facilities and data, as required.
Note the difficulty. There is a gate. This means a lot of hardware and this will be attacked and will have to be guarded and there is the problem. It's why Leo Varadkar, the Irish PM said on visiting the Canadian border - "make no mistake, It's a hard border".
I think the misunderstanding comes from the easy description "no hard border". The EU report thinks a lot of infrastructure to make the crossing easy is a soft border. For Ireland any infrastructure is hard.
