EU's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier side-stepped accusations from DUP leader Arlene Foster that he was "not an honest broker", saying he would not engage in "polemics".
Speaking ahead of Mr Barnier’s visit to both sides of the Border, Ms Foster claimed he does not understand “the wider unionist culture of Northern Ireland”, and that the EU had been “very aggressive” in tone in Brexit talks.
"I am not ready to engage in any kind of polemics with Ms Foster," Mr Barnier told reporters in Dundalk, Co Louth, at the start of his two-day visit to the Border region, his second visit to the area since the Brexit vote.
He denied he had ever being aggressive from the beginning of Brexit negotiations."There is no spirit of revenge, there is no spirit of punishment," he said ahead of his keynote address to the fourth All-Island Civic Forum, a gathering of civic and business groups, at Dundalk Institute of Technology.
Mr Barnier said he profoundly regretted the decision of the British to vote to leave the EU, but that he was “never aggressive”.
He pointed out that he was a negotiator for the remaining 27 EU states but that he was open to speak with the DUP, and that he would be happy to meet Ms Foster and other members of her party again.
"My door is open," he said, before later crossing the Border to meet business and lobby groups in Newry about the potential impact on the Border. Mr Barnier will visit Derry on Tuesday for another round-table discussion.
‘Backstop ’
The DUP objects to the "backstop", the only option on the table in the negotiations to avoid a hard border post-Brexit that would effectively keep Northern Ireland in the bloc's customs union and parts of the single market.
The party says this would create a border between Northern Ireland and Britain, a scenario that UK prime minister Theresa May – whose party relies on DUP support to remain in power – has said would be unacceptable.
"Michel Barnier's trying to present himself as someone who cares deeply about Northern Ireland, and if that is the case he needs to hear the fact that we are part of the United Kingdom [and] will remain part of the United Kingdom constitutionally, politically and economically," Ms Foster told the BBC before Mr Barnier's visit.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who introduced Mr Barnier at the forum, was also criticised by the DUP. Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson said Mr Varadkar's visit to Warrenpoint Harbour and a school in Co Down after his visit to Dundalk was "another demonstration of poor manners and disrespect" which appeared to be the Irish Government's Brexit strategy.
He accused the Taoiseach of not following “normal protocol” as no local representative was informed of the visit.”
