As the Brexit threat to the Irish prosperity – FAZ – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Far out in the West, the European Union promises of Brexit good business: “So many requests from potential customers, such as in the last few months, we have never had,” says Roland Gröpler. The German-born entrepreneur, is the owner of the medium-sized automotive supplier, G&G Engineering in the Irish County of Mayo, on the Atlantic coast.

author: Marcus Theurer, economic correspondent, based in London. consequences:

Since the British people in the Referendum in June for the withdrawal from the EU would have voted, were looking for international companies increasingly looking for Alternatives to British suppliers, reported Gröpler. Because they feared that after the Brexit no smooth supply of products from the United Kingdom in the EU could be more possible. Therefore, the Brexit is a growth opportunity for Gröplers small company in the tiny village of Killala, around three and a half hours by car West of Dublin.

In the Irish capital, the looks alone of the British, however, are less optimistic. “We don’t like the Brexit, but we must accept it,” said Enda Kenny, the Prime Minister of Ireland. For the small island Republic of only about 5 million inhabitants and an economic output that is lower than that of Hesse, the EU-exit of the large neighboring country, in many ways, alarming.

not just economic risks

No other European country is politically, economically and socially so closely with the Kingdom connected with Ireland, that was until after the Second world war, part of the British colonial Empire. It is the only EU country that shares a land border with the UK: The green border between British Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is just over 100 kilometres North of Dublin. There will be after Brexit back border controls and customs barriers?

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“The return of a hard limit in Ireland would not accept the citizens”, – says the head of the government, Kenny. Finally, up to 50,000 people passed through every day, the almost invisible boundary between the two Parts of Ireland, including many commuters. It is also 17 per cent of the Irish depend on economic performance from the export business to the UK. “The Irish trade with the UK accounts for more than a billion euros in the week,” the Prime Minister. Economists estimate that it could shrink by the Brexit by up to a fifth.

not growing It is not just economic risks, but also political: Since the opt-out vote of the British people, the fear of a resurgence of the violent conflict in Northern Ireland. This was the question of whether the North of Ireland to remain in the UK or the Republic of Ireland in the combined.

The fear of a hard Brexit grows

Whilst in the last two decades, a pacification. But until today, the Northern Irish society is deeply divided: there are Still those in the capital city of the “peace lines of Belfast,” the barriers that living in the UK the “unionists” of which the Irish-nationalist “Republicans” separates areas. “The peace is too often viewed as a matter of course,” warns Kenny.