UK guarantees soft border with Ireland

The British government has vowed repeatedly to end the free movement of people from the European Union when the UK leaves the bloc in 2019. But on Wednesday it acknowledged that, in one area of the country, it would not.

Britain said there must be no border posts or electronic checks between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic after Brexit, and it committed itself to maintaining the longstanding, border-free Common Travel Area covering the UK and Ireland.

"There should be no physical border infrastructure of any kind on either side of the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland," British Prime Minister Theresa May said.

That means free movement across the border for British, Irish – and EU – citizens. After Britain leaves the bloc, EU nationals will be able to move without checks from Ireland to Northern Ireland, and onto other parts of the U.K.

Free movement among member states is a key EU principle and has seen hundreds of thousands of people move to Britain and get jobs there since the bloc expanded into eastern Europe more than a decade ago.

Many Britons who voted last year to leave the EU cited a desire to regain control of immigration as a key reason.

Dublin welcomes move

Ireland welcomed what it called significant progress in efforts to avoid the hard border but admitted any such deal would have to be a one-off.

On Tuesday, London outlined plans for a future customs agreement with the European Union that would likely define the relationship between Dublin and the province.

The European Parliament's Brexit point-man Guy Verhofstadt dismissed the customs plan, calling the idea of an invisible border a "fantasy."

But Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney was more positive.

"Both papers, yesterday and today, are a significant step forward and I think it would be welcomed," he told journalists in Dublin, while cautioning that delivering on their aims would be difficult.