The British Minister in charge of the thorny North Irish record is replaced by the head of the diplomacy, Liz Truss.
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After the resignation of the position of Minister in charge of Brexit, the British David Frost and his taste for provocation will certainly not be regretted in Brussels. But the departure of Lord Frost, who insisted to renegotiate the agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom on the North Irish border, does not allow him alone to solve this thorny question. “The position of the United Kingdom has not changed,” said Tuesday, December 21, Liz Truss, British Minister for Foreign Affairs, now in charge of post-Brexit files. “The position of the EU is known,” on its part, recalled Maros Sefcovic, Vice-President of the European Commission. To know: the agreement designed to avoid the return of a border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, negotiated and ratified by the United Kingdom itself, is not renegotiable.
If they both have their determination to demine this ground when the discussions, for the suspended time, will resume in January 2022, these declarations published in the wake of their first telephone interview testify to the gap that still separates London and Brussels. Liz Truss expressed his wish “accelerate the pace of discussions” and establish “a constructive relationship with the EU”. “Our preference remains to achieve a concerted solution” about the North Irish border, she insisted. Where appropriate, the new British negotiator reiterated the threats of David Frost.
Just as his predecessor, she recalled Wednesday that Prime Minister Boris Johnson remained “ready” to suspend partly the North Irish protocol, which establishes a customs border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland . It also pleaded to “terminate” the role granted to the EU Court of Justice for disagreements related to the application of this Agreement, which the European Union refuses.
Line Red for the EU
“We need the goods freely circulate between Great Britain and Northern Ireland,” said M me Truss. However, under this Protocol, the British Province must remain aligned with the rules of the European internal market. Therefore, the controls of the goods that enter the Great Britain must be carried out in its ports. Confronted with the difficulties of supply of Northern Ireland, but especially to the political reality of this agreement that the Brexiters have signed by pincheding, David Frost therefore required to renegotiate it, on pain of activating the article 16.
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