The telegraph
What’s next for the border with Northern Ireland?
This was first published in The Telegraph’s Refresher newsletter. For more facts and explanations behind the week’s biggest political stories, sign up for Refresher here – right in your inbox every Wednesday afternoon for free. What’s the story? The UK and the EU are again at odds over how to resolve the difficulties at the Northern Ireland border, after threats against port staff and new calls for the government to abandon the Northern Ireland Protocol. Britain’s departure from the European Union and the end of the Brexit transition period mean that there should be customs controls on goods entering the EU’s single market when traveling between the UK and the EU via Northern Ireland. The perennial question for lawmakers has been how to check goods without imposing a rigid border between Northern Ireland and the Republic: something that all parties have pledged to avoid since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. But the The solution agreed between the UK and the EU in the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement – the Northern Ireland Protocol – is not working as well as expected. The initial difficulties in Northern Ireland’s ports were exacerbated by the European Commission’s threat on 29 January to block the exit of vaccines from the EU, which would have effectively imposed a rigid border on the island. The Commission ‘s brief triggering of Article 16 of the Protocol was quickly terminated, but not before tensions between unionists and Republicans in Northern Ireland were ignited by the sudden prospect of a border. Threats were made against port workers and loyal graffiti was painted on the walls around Larne and Belfast. Northern Ireland police say there is no indication of paramilitary involvement, but customs officials have been sent home for their own safety. Michael Gove, who is responsible for dealing with border issues in Northern Ireland on behalf of the UK Government, condemned the Commission for opening a “Pandora’s Box” and called for an extension of a “grace period” in the Protocol. The grace period, which would have ended in April, allows goods to travel across the border without some of the controls that will eventually be required, in an attempt to smooth the transition. An extension is expected to allow problems to be resolved before further checks are imposed. Looking back The Northern Ireland Protocol was Boris Johnson’s solution to the Northern Ireland border issue. Removing the hated barrier from Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement – and breaking the Conservative Party’s agreement with the DUP – Mr Johnson agreed that some checks would be made on goods entering Northern Ireland from Britain, if they were “at risk” of traveling to the EU. This resolution was controversial. For DUP politicians, any goods check traveling between the UK’s four nations represents an unacceptable violation of the country’s own domestic market. The EU was finally satisfied with the Northern Ireland Protocol and agreed with Mr Johnson’s government in October 2019. But it did not come into force until the end of the Brexit transition period on January 1, after which the Kingdom United was finally no longer treated as an EU member state. For the Irish government, which has opposed Britain’s withdrawal from the EU from the start, the issues of the past few weeks have less to do with threats from the EU vaccine and more to do with Brexit itself. In a radio interview last week, Simon Coveney, Ireland’s foreign minister, said: “I would be open to advocating for modest lengths of grace periods when appropriate to try, in the first place, to assure people that we are listening in Northern Ireland, because we are, and then, in second place, so that we can ensure that companies can operate in the best possible way under the protocol. “But this is not the same thing as discarding the protocol and it is important to make a strong distinction between the two.” Mr. Coveney signaled that the Irish Government would be open to an extension of the grace period, but said that any agreement could not involve a renegotiation of the protocol and, by extension, the Withdrawal Agreement. In the meantime, my colleagues report that the EU is almost certain to accept an extension for a limited period of three to six months, and not the two years that Mr Gove requested. Anything else? The situation in Northern Ireland is further complicated by the continuing calls by the DUP for the UK government to bring Article 16 into effect and abandon the protocol altogether. The party is seeking a series of political measures aimed at undermining the mechanism, including a boycott of involvement with the Irish government in matters related to its operation and a promise to oppose any legislation related to the protocol in the Assembly. Other parties to the Stormont power-sharing agreement say the DUP’s aim of voiding the protocol is “unrealistic” and should focus on cooperation with other parts of Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Assembly has veto power over the protocol, but only in one vote every four years. Until then, the SDLP, another part of the agreement, said that union leaders “need to learn the lesson they should have learned several times in the past 100 years – the British government will disappoint you and if you keep going right you will be in a worse position when I return to the table ”. Refresher’s opinion For Brexit observers, the specter of UK ministers in negotiations with the EU on Northern Ireland is familiar. But if both sides do not agree on an extension of the grace period that is long enough to resolve the problems at the border in a technical and peaceful way, then more customs controls will be imposed. The EU has little choice but to accept Gove’s request for an extension, as it was partly the Commission’s nonsense that caused the latest tensions. Despite the vaccine disaster, the past few weeks have exposed weaknesses in a customs arrangement that was promised to exporters and citizens that it would be sound. Gove and his colleagues have some important but difficult weeks ahead of them.