UK warns EU it may suspend Northern Ireland protocol

THE UK government has warned the EU that it may unilaterally suspend the so-called Northern Ireland protocol agreed upon by Prime Minister Boris Johnson last December, reported The Guardian.

Lord David Frost, the Brexit minister, raised the prospect of triggering “Article 16” of the protocol, a safeguard clause allowing either side to dispense with applying the protocol if it “leads to serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties that are liable to persist”.

“I urge the EU to take this seriously. They would be making a significant mistake if they thought that we were not ready to use Article 16 safeguards, if that were to be the only apparent way forward to deal with the situation in front of us,” he said at the House of Lords.

Frost warned that to avoid the protocol collapsing, there “needs to be a real negotiation between us and the EU.”

After the UK exited the European Union, Northern Ireland also effectively left the single market.

The Republic of Ireland, meanwhile, remains a part of the European bloc.

Under the Northern Ireland Protocol, Britain agreed to leave some EU rules in place in Northern Ireland and accept checks on goods arriving from elsewhere in the UK to preserve an open land border with EU member state Ireland as a key pillar of the peace process there, hailing back to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

“I was concerned by some of the comments we have heard from commission representatives in recent days which seem to suggest they may be considering this way forward (the take it or leave it approach),” Frost told the House of Lords.

“If so, then with as much seriousness as I can, my Lords, I urge them to think again and consider instead working to reach genuine agreement with us so that we can put in place something that can last.

“Those negotiations need to begin seriously and they need to begin soon.”

On Saturday the Brexit minister warned of a long-term chill marring UK-EU relations.