NI Protocol talks ‘won’t be a renegotiation’
EUROPEAN Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic has said talks around the Northern Ireland Protocol will not be a renegotiation.
The EC has laid out measures to slash 80% of regulatory checks and dramatically cut customs processes on the movement of goods, especially food and farming produce, between mainland Britain and the island of Ireland.
The comments from the commission’s vice president come as Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the EU has proved how ‘open and willing’ it is to bring a resolution to post-Brexit trade issues in Northern Ireland.
Mr Martin paid tribute to Mr Sefcovic for how he and the EC have handled post-Brexit issues.
He said: ‘It’s been a sincere, hard-working and very sensitive and committed approach.
‘Maros Sefcovic has really consulted with people all around. His engagement with the Irish Government to get a sense of things, he went north and spoke to people on the ground in Northern Ireland and business and industry, and politically met with all the parties.
‘The British government has pleaded that they didn’t fully understand the implications of the protocol or with the Withdrawal Agreement. I think the European Commission has now demonstrated that they are really open and willing to bring a resolution to this.”
Mr Martin said that in his last meeting with Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister indicated he wanted another opportunity to seek a resolution. ‘The stakes are high in respect of making sure we can maintain the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement and political stability in Northern Ireland,’ the Taoiseach said.
UK Brexit minister David Frost is expected in Brussels today to meet Mr Sefcovic to discuss ways to break the deadlock. Mr Sefcovic spoke to the North’s political leaders yesterday, and afterwards he said he has no mandate to renegotiate the protocol.