I'm not sure how I missed it at the time, but it seems that the European Parliament's Brexit steering committee (six MEPs and Guy Verhofstadt) has told Ireland (not the UK) that it must set up a hard customs border in the event of a no deal Brexit, or face being ejected from the customs union itself - effectively stating that the integrity of customs union overrides the Good Friday Agreement.
Elmar Brok, of the steering committee said:
“We would have to set up a customs border with Ireland. The defence of the internal market is the basis of our economic success in Germany. If we destroy the Single Market, the EU is finished.”
Philippe Lamberts, also of the steering committee said:
"The British would have a 500km backdoor into the single market. If Ireland refuses to protect the border with Northern Ireland after a hard Brexit, we would have to relocate the customs border to the Continent."
Original German article here:
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/b ... 51148.html
Ireland doesn't want a hard border. "Great Britain" doesn't want a hard border. Northern Ireland doesn't want a hard border. No part of the British Isles wants a hard border. The European Parliament says Ireland has an obligation to set up a hard border or it gets kicked out.
So either the EU forces Ireland* to break the Good Friday Agreement, or the EU ejects a member state.
That's a rather interesting change of tack from the EU which seems to have always insisted the UK would be responsible for such a hard border - and quite a distance from Tusk's comments later the same day:
"The top priority for us, remains the issue of the border on the island of Ireland, and the guarantee to maintain the peace process in accordance with the Good Friday Agreement. There is no room for speculation here. The EU itself is first and foremost a peace project. We will not gamble with peace; or put a sell-by date on reconciliation."
Right now it seems to be "**** Good Friday, because our customs union".
I suspect more movement on this issue is to come. From the EU27.
*Like it forced Ireland into a crippling bank bailout package in 2010