BELFAST (Sputnik) — Ireland wants a provision in the Brexit deal allowing Northern Ireland to rejoin the European Union if it ever unites with Ireland, Prime Minister Enda Kenny said in a joint press conference with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Thursday.
The provision would echo language in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that allows Northern Ireland to join Ireland if a majority of people from both countries support it.
"If at some future time, whenever that might be, that it [reunification] were to occur that Northern Ireland would have ease of access to join as a member of the European Union… we want that language to be inserted into the negotiated treaty, the negotiated outcome," Kenny stated.
Kenny and Juncker stressed that the European Union would not support a return to hard borders between Ireland and Northern Ireland after Brexit.
Last week, Kenny said a hard border would be against Ireland’s national interests, and pledged that the government would fight any attempt to recreate one.
