The foreign office, quoting its foreign minister Heiko Maas, tweeted: “Germany and the entire EU will stand by Ireland on the backstop. We will not allow (Ivory Coast flag emoji) to be isolated on this issue.” The flags of the Ivory Coast and Ireland are similar, the Ivory Coast has three equal vertical bands of orange, white and green and the Ireland flag is a vertical tricolour of green, white and orange. Twitter users were quick to point out the gaffe, with hundreds of retweets.
One told them to go on a “flag awareness course”, to which the German foreign office replied that the German word for such a course would be Länderflaggensensibilisierungsfortbildungsveranstaltung”.
After they were made aware of the mistake, the department tried to laugh off the mistake, writing: “Wrong flag, but our message remains the same: We will not allow IRELAND to be isolated on this issue”.
They added: “Thanks to all our followers for spotting the mistake before we did.
“Fake news will never get past you guys.”
They also said: “We’re all confused by Brexit”.
Another social media user said: “Even diplomats make mistakes, just for clarity Cote d’Ivoire is not a member of the EU”.
The Irish border has become the sticking point for Brexit discussions, with no plan to stop a hard border on the island of Ireland gaining consensus in Parliament or the EU.
The planned backstop, which would see Northern Ireland follow certain EU rules to align laws and prevent the need for border checks, has Brexiteers concerned the UK will be tied to the EU customs union, taking away Britain’s chance to strike trade deals around the world.
And the DUP, which props up Theresa May’s minority Government, say Northern Ireland must maintain the same rules as the rest of the UK.
MPs voted on Tuesday to back an amendment from Sir Graham Brady calling for an “alternative” to the backstop to be negotiated.
This has given Mrs May the chance to return to Brussels to try and reach a new agreement with the EU.
But the EU is refusing to re-open the Withdrawal Agreement negotiations.