Brexit is “not something to celebrate”, Ireland’s foreign minister Simon Coveney declared after the UK formally severed ties with the EU, as he warned of trading disruptions due to fresh red tape. In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday, Coveney said: “For 48 years, the United Kingdom really has been a central part of the European Union. And that is now firmly ending with the end of the transition period … For all of us in Ireland, that is not something to celebrate. Our relationship with the United Kingdom is so close, so integrated, so interwoven, if you like, politically, economically and from a family perspective. Newly introduced checks on goods arriving in Northern Ireland from mainland Britain would be “as limited as possible”, he said.

Source: The Guardian January 01, 2021 16:06 UTC