EU snubs talks to end NI border checks deadlock
BRUSSELS has rejected the UK’s demand to renegotiate the post-Brexit rules for Northern Ireland.
European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic claimed haggling over the Brexit border checks would plunge the region into chaos.
The EU’s Brexit chief insisted Downing Street should instead compromise on its request and work with the bloc to enforce the trade rules in the region.
During a visit to Belfast, Mr Sefcovic said yesterday: “I will not mince my words. The Protocol is not the problem. On the contrary, it is the only solution we have.
“Failing to apply it will not make problems disappear, but simply take away the tools to solve them. A renegotiation of the Protocol, as the
UK is suggesting, would mean instability, uncertainty and unpredictability in Northern Ireland.” UK and EU officials are at loggerheads over how to end the deadlock in the row over the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The measures, which effectively created a border between the UK and Northern Ireland, have angered Unionists. Mr Sefcovic’s remarks came after the DUP threatened to collapse Stormont and kill off the hated border fix.
DUP MP Gavin Robinson fumed: “This is not just a Unionist problem.”
To keep the Irish frontier open, the area effectively remains part of the EU’s single market and checks are made on some goods from the rest of the UK.
The Prime Minister’s spokesman insisted Downing Street is committed to making “constructive progress” on a long-term solution. He added: “We acknowledge that there are significant issues in the Northern Ireland Protocol.”