Armin Hohenadler

In an interview with the Guardian, Commissioner George Hamilton of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said: „The last thing we want is all the infrastructure around the border because there is something symbolic and it becomes the target of violent dissidents.“ Sky News publishes the story (27 Feb 18) about Boris Johnson`s (Foreign Minister)`s leak in which he contemplates the return of a hard border: „Even if a hard border were reintroduced, we would expect 95% of goods to cross the border [without] controls.“ (Added 28 Feb 18). FactCheckNI is Northern Ireland`s first and only independent fact-checking service and a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network Code of Conduct. You`ll learn more about FactCheckNI, our staff, what our judgments mean and how to apply. The Irish backstop was a protocol in the (un ratified) Brexit withdrawal agreement that would have kept the UK (generally) in the customs union of the European Union and Northern Ireland (in particular) on certain aspects of the European internal market until a solution was found to avoid a hard border. This should not compromise the Good Friday agreement[47] and preserve the integrity of the European internal market. This would only have come into effect if there were no other solutions before the end of the (agreed) transition period. The Belfast and Good Friday agreement does not exclude Northern Ireland and Ireland from the establishment of cross-border checkpoints and other security measures. However, one of the explicit objectives of the UK withdrawal agreement is to minimise physical border controls. There is no explicit obligation to never harden the border, and there is nothing on customs or regulatory controls. The statement was made in the context of a debate on the Financial Times (Financial Times; paywall) on the UK government`s preparation of legislation on the UK internal market, set out in a white paper, which could be contrary to the UK`s withdrawal agreement with the European Union, particularly with regard to the „Northern Ireland Protocol“ (see esp.