Role of ECJ in Protocol is big sticking point
A big gap remains between the European Union and the UK on the Northern Ireland Protocol, Lord Frost has warned ahead of talks with his European counterpart.
The UK Brexit minister was speaking as he arrived at the European Commission in Brussels to meet vice-p resident Maros Sefcovic on EU proposals to reduce trading friction created by the contentious post-brexit arrangements for the Irish Sea.
On Wednesday, the EU tabled a range of proposals aimed at cutting the red tape the protocol has imposed on moving goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
However, the plan did not address a key UK demand: the removal of the oversight function of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in the operation of the protocol.
Speaking to reporters outside the Commission ahead of lunch discussions with Mr Sefcovic, Lord Frost said: "So, I think the EU has definitely made an effort in pushing beyond where they typically go in these areas, and we're quite encouraged by that, but obviously there is still quite a big gap and that's what we've got to work through today and in the future."
Lord Frost said the role of the ECJ in policing the protocol will feature in the discussions with Mr Sefcovic.
"The governance arrangements as we have them don't work – we need to take the court out of the system as it is now and we need to find a better way forward," he said.
Earlier, Lord Frost told politics website Politico that the UK is studying the EU proposals "constructively" but there is still a "long way to go".
"Clearly they have proposed some changes; we do need to understand that detail, and we've begun that conversation,
but there's quite a long way to go," he said.
Responding to claims that the UK is trying to tear up an international treaty, including allegations from former chief Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings that it was always the intention to ditch the protocol, Lord Frost said the government knew some elements of the arrangements would "possibly be difficult to make work in practice" and they were always viewed as "a little bit provisional and open to review".
Rejecting the suggestion that the UK is acting in bad faith, the Brexit minister added: "Obviously the protocol was agreed at a particular moment.
"We knew that some elements of the protocol would possibly be difficult to make work in practice, and some aspects of it were left open for the discussions in 2020 and afterwards.
"I don't think it's surprising that we found that that was the case... the very fact that the protocol has a consent mechanism [in the Stormont Assembly]
in it for four years' time showed we recognised that it might be necessary to renew or otherwise consent for these arrangements."
Mr Sefcovic has said the EU has stretched itself to offer farreaching compromises but insisted he has no mandate to renegotiate the protocol.
"Now we should really do the last mile, work constructively with all the proposals we put on the table, put it finally to bed," he said.