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Prime Minister Johnson and his Brexit negotiating team have repeatedly insisted that the EU must respect British sovereignty. This message has been echoed yet again in recent days, including with an emphasis on the UK’s status as an “independent” nation (not incidentally a topic on which Ireland feels it has an immense amount to learn from our neighbour).

However, the issue of national sovereignty is far more complicated than Johnson’s team seem to imagine. A successful conclusion to the Brexit negotiations, as well as the close future UK/EU relationship that all sensible people want to see, will require some understanding of that complexity, which has four important aspects.

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