Flanagan believes ‘messy’ Brexit outcome can be avoided

Ireland would favour the closest possible relationship between the EU and the UK following Brexit, Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan said in a speech at the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin on Wednesday.

“No one wants complicated, messy arrangements and I am confident we can avoid them,” he said, adding that it was the will of both the UK and the EU to maintain a close relationship.

Mr Flanagan said that despite the recent elections in France and the Netherlands, Eurosceptic remains prominent within Europe.

“Notwithstanding President Macron’s decisive victory, over 10 million voters in France were still seduced by the ugly, xenophobic and anti-Semitic rhetoric of the National Front and the Le Pen dynasty.”

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He said international co-operation and continued globalisation were necessary to prevent rising populism. Europe had been “preoccupied” with the euro-zone crisis and had failed to notice or stem the tide of populism, he believed.

He noted that in many OECD countries the benefits of growth had been unequally shared, but isolationist policies or “narrow nationalism” held no advantage.

Protecting the centre was “more vital than ever” as fear pushed people to the far right and left. In order to challenge populism, he said people must “insist on zero tolerance of all forms of xenophobia and discrimination, to protect the freedom of expression and to face down all forms of misinformation.”