The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Sefcovic meets Stormont leaders as DUP threaten to collapse parliament
European Commission vicepresident Maros Sefcovic has held “constructive” talks with Stormont leaders over the difficulties in implementing the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The meetings came at the end of a dramatic day when DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson signalled that his party will collapse the Executive within weeks if changes to the protocol are not delivered.
The controversy coincided with the visit by Mr Sefcovic to Northern Ireland to gather information about the post-Brexit agreement. He met business leaders near the Irish border before travelling to Stormont.
Both the UUP and Sinn Fein said that Mr Sefcovic had told them the EU would legislate to resolve any difficulties caused to the supply of medicines because of the protocol.
However, the DUP has stepped up its campaign of opposition to the protocol, which was agreed by the UK and EU as a way to maintain a freeflowing land border on the island of Ireland after Brexit.
Unionists in Northern Ireland have been vehemently opposed to its terms which see additional checks on goods arriving to the region from the rest of the UK.
They claim the arrangements have undermined Northern Ireland’s place within the UK.
Sir Jeffrey’s threat to collapse the Stormont institutions was accompanied by an announcement of his party’s immediate withdrawal from crossborder political institutions established on the island of Ireland under the Good Friday peace agreement.
Ahead of any move to pull ministers out of the coalition administration, a step that would bring down the power-sharing institutions, Sir Jeffrey said his party was first seeking to challenge the legality of checks on GB to NI trade introduced under the protocol and establish whether their implementation requires the approval of the Stormont Executive.
“In the final analysis those who are democratically elected by the people of Northern Ireland lack the power to prevent such checks, if that is the case, if our ministers cannot in the end prevent these checks taking place and if the protocol issues remain then I have to be clear, the position in office of DUP ministers would become untenable,” he said.
“If the choice is ultimately between remaining in office or implementing the protocol in its present form then the only option, the only option for any unionist minister would be to cease to hold such office.”
While Sir Jeffrey said the DUP was withdrawing from north/south political bodies, he said his party would seek to ensure continued cross-border co-operation on health issues.
He said: “Post Brexit, north/south and east/west relationships are, if anything, more important than ever.
“But they cannot operate in isolation or while strand three (of the Good Friday Agreement), the east/west relationship, has been undermined.
“There can be no dispute that the fabric of strand three has been fundamentally undermined by the protocol.
“In such circumstances, unionists cannot be expected to operate strand two as though nothing had changed.”