Clock ticking on EU talks, Truss told
DUP renews threat to collapse Stormont if ‘clear date’ not set to resolve NI Protocol deadlock
LIZ TRUSS must set a formal deadline for ending negotiations with Brussels over the Northern Ireland Protocol, the DUP leader has said, as he renewed his threat to collapse Stormont if fixes were not found urgently.
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph in the wake of Lord Frost’s resignation as Brexit minister, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said the Foreign Secretary must now deliver a “clear date” for drawing the talks to a close.
He added that once this deadline was hit, he expected the UK to have either secured a deal with the EU that ended the trade disruption being caused by the protocol or to trigger Article 16 – allowing Britain to unilaterally suspend parts of the agreement.
In a sign that his patience with the Government is waning fast, Sir Jeffrey also said that his threat to take further action included the option to withdraw ministers from Northern Ireland’s political institutions.
Asked how long he was prepared to give Ms Truss, who has taken over Lord Frost’s responsibilities for post-Brexit relations with the EU, Sir Jeffrey declined to specify a deadline, but noted: “January is going to be an absolutely crucial month.”
He added: “We need a clear date now, we need a clear timeline in which there is an expectation of real progress or the Government takes the action that is necessary. It is crucial that Liz Truss moves this process forward quickly and that we get real and meaningful progress on a range of issues, not least of which is removing the checks on the movement of goods within the United Kingdom internal market.
“If we don’t get rapid and decisive progress, and one side or the other is kicking the can down the road, this will have major implications for the stability of the political institutions in Northern Ireland.”
His comments suggest the DUP could seek to collapse Stormont by next month if the UK and the EU have not managed to secure an agreement.
While campaigning for Northern Ireland Assembly elections will effectively commence from March, it also opens up the prospect of Stormont being suspended earlier than anticipated.
Downing Street and the Irish government have also pointed to the end of February as an informal cut-off point for the talks, fearing that any further delay could see the issue dominate the assembly elections.
But Sir Jeffrey’s calls are likely to be seen as unhelpful in Whitehall, as the Government has sought to avoid hard deadlines in order to provide negotiators with breathing space.
While Sir Jeffrey initially issued his threat to pull out of Stormont and force an early election in September, this was paused when the negotiations over the protocol commenced in order to help strengthen the UK’s negotiating hand.
The intervention comes after Lord Frost quit the Cabinet, citing his unease at the “direction of travel” in government. It is understood that he was privately frustrated at progress in the talks.
The UK has also dropped its demands for an immediate removal of the European Court of Justice’s oversight of EU rules that continue to apply in Northern
Ireland, despite it being one of Lord Frost’s key priorities. EU diplomats said France will not use its EU presidency to push a harder line. There had been fears that Emmanuel Macron could attempt to ratchet up pressure on the UK amid a dispute over post-Brexit fishing rights.
However, Paris has reassured European capitals it does not intend to make any serious interventions. “It’s not going to be the French presidency messing up discussions over the protocol,” one diplomat said. “From where we sit, the tone quality and outcome of the talks more than anything depend on the mood of two people: Johnson and Truss.”
A former senior civil servant in charge of Brexit planning has warned some British businesses may “give up importing” as a result of new rules which came into force yesterday.