EU says united Ireland would be automatic full member

Ireland’s Enda Kenny speaks during a news conference in the Hague, the Netherlands April 21, 2017. REUTERS/Michael Kooren

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders promised on Saturday to embrace the British province of Northern Ireland into the EU if a referendum in the future were to unite it with the Republic of Ireland.

At a summit on the EU's plan for negotiating with Britain as it leaves the bloc, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny asked fellow members to acknowledge that Northern Ireland would, like East Germany in 1990, automatically enter the EU in the event of unification with existing member state.