UK Cabinet Minister Michael Gove
Photographer: Simon Dawson / Bloomberg
Photographer: Simon Dawson / Bloomberg
The United Kingdom and the EU have agreed to work “intensively” to resolve their differences over the border with Northern Ireland, while seeking to contain a controversy that threatens to rekindle the most contentious element of the Brexit agreement.
UK Cabinet Minister Michael Gove and European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic met with the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Northern Ireland on Wednesday, a discussion that was “productive” , according to a joint statement.
The meeting took place after the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson It threatened to suspend parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol due to the disruption it is causing to trade across the Irish Sea. In a letter to Sefcovic, Gove called for an extension of the grace periods that allow some controls on goods moving between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK to be ignored.
Tensions rose significantly last week, after the European Commission said that control vaccine exports to Northern Ireland – blinding the UK and Irish governments and infuriating union political leaders. Although the EU reversed the course in a few hours, the measure damaged confidence between the two sides.
At a meeting of EU diplomats in Brussels earlier in the day, the Irish ambassador told the Commission that his decision undermined confidence in the protocol, as well as in the peace process it was designed to protect, according to a note from the meeting seen by Bloomberg News.
Northern Ireland officials who carry out post-Brexit checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea have also faced intimidation and threats in recent weeks, a fact condemned by Gove and Sefcovic.
“Both of them unreservedly condemned any threat or intimidation, noting that the safety and well-being of the people of Northern Ireland and our team would always be the top priority,” they said.
The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, Arlene Foster, continued to demand the cancellation of the so-called protocol.
“Plaster solutions and grace periods that kick the can down the road will not solve these problems,” she said. “The Northern Ireland Protocol did not work, it cannot work”.
– With the help of Ian Wishart
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