The United Kingdom asks Brussels to tackle the “fundamentals” of the North Irish protocol signed with the Brexit Agreement. A response from Europeans is expected next week.
Le Monde with AFP
The British government will intensify its pressure on Brussels to require “significant changes” in the protocol that governs the post-Brexit customs provisions specific to Northern Ireland.
The British Secretary of State in charge of Brexit David Frost, account, during a speech Tuesday, October 12 in Lisbon, press the twenty-seven again to show “ambition and will”, according to a statement Distributed Saturday, October 9th at night by Downing Street.
In order to prevent the return of a border on the island of Ireland that may weaken peace, the North Irish protocol signed with the Brexit agreement introduces controls on goods arriving in the British province coming from of Great Britain.
But this agreement is held responsible for supply difficulties and is accused of creating an Ireland sea border. Anger around the text also fueled violence on the island in the spring, which revived the spectrum of the three decades of conflict that made 3,500 deaths until the peace agreement in 1998.
David Frost “will undertake to study with attention” and “as positively as possible” the European response to the British proposals, expected on Wednesday, and to begin “intensive discussions very soon”, according to Downing Street. It will also highlight that “endless discussions are not an option,” to repeat that lack of rapid solution, London would not hesitate to suspend the protocol by activating Article 16, which makes it possible to override certain provisions of the agreement. In case of “serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties”.
“go much further than the question of sausages”
According to the British press, who welcomes a victory of the Government of Boris Jonhson, the European Union (EU) is preparing to propose a solution to end the “sausage war”, providing for exemptions to the ‘Prohibition – for postponement – in Northern Ireland of non-frozen meat from Great Britain for products related to the “national identity”.
But, according to the Downing Street press release, any solution must “go much further than the issue of sausages” and tackle “fundamental”, as the role of the EU Court of Justice (CJEU) To assert the laws of the European single market that apply in Northern Ireland.
According to the excerpts of David Frost’s speech, “Without new arrangements in this area, the protocol will never have the support it needs to survive”.
Such a claim inevitably risks to the refusal of the Brussels Commission, which has always been open to negotiations on the application of the Protocol, but not to the renegotiation of the text itself.
According to a British government source, “the real question is whether the EU is ready in the face of the scale of the necessary changes”.
