Coveney: EU can’t trust Britain
Minister frustrated at breaking of NI Protocol
THE EU is negotiating with a partner it “simply cannot trust” Simon Coveney has said after the UK’S latest Brexit move.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs described the British Government’s unilateral decision to continue Irish Sea border grace periods until October as “very frustrating”.
Speaking on RTE Radio One, Mr Coveney said it is breaking the Northern Ireland Protocol and its own commitments.
He added: “This is not the first time this has happened, that they are negotiating with a partner that they simply cannot trust.
“That is why the EU is now looking at legal options and legal actions which effectively means a much more formalised and rigid negotiation process as opposed to a process of partnership where you try to solve problems together, so this is
really unwelcome. It’s the British Government essentially breaking the protocol, breaking their own commitments again, and the EU having to then consider how they respond to that.”
Leo Varadkar has said the UK’S decision to extend the NI Protocol grace period is “not the appropriate behaviour of a respectable country”.
The first of the light-touch regulation schemes on goods from the rest of the UK transiting to Northern Ireland had been due to expire at the end of March.
Supermarkets would have had to produce export health certificates for all shipments of animal products since the North is part of the single market.
UK Cabinet member Lord David Frost said the UK’S intervention should allow time for constructive discus
sions with counterparts in Brussels. But Mr Coveney said the timing of the UK’S move could not be worse and the British Government has “changed their approach”.
He added he had a “blunt” conversation with Lord Frost and Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis on Wednesday after learning of the UK Government’s actions and “strongly advised them not to do it”.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden needs to step in to resolve the crisis, a TD claimed yesterday.
Labour’s Aodhan O Riordain said: “There probably is a role for President Biden at this stage to make his views known to the British Government as to how destabilising the actions of the British Government have been.”