Irish, UK governments split over Brexit progress

The U.K. government "understands the difficulties" Brexit poses to stability in Ireland, Britain's foreign minister insisted on Friday.

However, the Irish and British governments still disagree about moving EU/U.K. talks to a second stage.

Speaking at a news conference in Dublin where he is visiting his Irish counterpart Simon Coveney, Boris Johnson said: "Everybody recognizes the unique circumstances of the border with Northern Ireland," and claimed no-one wanted a "hard border" between the two jurisdictions on the island.

The Republic of Ireland remains an EU member but Northern Ireland -- part of the U.K. -- will leave the bloc in March 2019.

There are fears the upheaval could destabilize the whole island, which saw an international peace deal in 1998 to end decades of violence between Irish nationalists and pro-British unionists over the status of Northern Ireland.

The EU said Brexit negotiations were not likely to move on to a second phase -- where future trade relations will be discussed -- before questions about a financial settlement, citizens' rights and Northern Ireland are resolved.

However, this second stage of Brexit negotiations needed to start first, Johnson insisted on Friday.

"In order to resolve those issues… it is necessary now to move on to the second stage of the negotiations which really entail so many of the questions that are bound up with the border issue," Johnson added.

However, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said: "We all want to move on to phase two… but we are not in a place right now that allows us to do that."

The Irish government has remained deeply concerned over Brexit with the U.K. being a major trade partner and bound up in security and stability issues in Northern Ireland.

"We have 38,000 businesses in Ireland that trade with Britain every single week and they want and need certainty… but we also have very serious issues in phase one, particularly around the border, and the Good Friday [Belfast] Agreement and the peace process," Coveney added. "They need more clarity that we currently have."

Coveney also reiterated his earlier proposal that a transition period over border issues could be up to four or five years longer, a period Johnson said could be much shorter.

-'POLITICS ABOVE PROSPERITY'
U.K. Brexit Secretary David Davis yesterday said Germany and other European nations should not "put politics above prosperity".

"In the face of those facts, I know that no one would allow short-term interests to risk those hard-earned gains. Because putting politics above prosperity is never a smart choice," he told an economic forum in Berlin.

Davis's remarks followed a leaked EU document which suggested the U.K. would have to be satisfied with a "standard Free Trade Agreement" after Brexit.

He expressed hopes for a deal that "allows for the freest possible trade in goods and services" and said he thought it "incredibly unlikely" there would be no deal.

The Brexit secretary also defended the British approach to the BBC on Friday, saying that the U.K. wants compromise from the EU.

"We want them to compromise; surprise, surprise -- nothing comes for nothing in this world," he said.

"But so far, in this negotiation, we have made a lot of compromises. On the citizens' rights front, we have made all the running. We have made the running in terms of the right to vote where the EU does not seem to be able to agree."

The 27 member states will decide in a December summit whether there was sufficient progress in Brexit talks to move on to next stage.

The U.K. public decided to leave the EU after a 44-year membership in a referendum held in June 2016. It is expected to leave the union in March 2019.