UK-EU deal on protocol possible ‘in weeks’

Maros Sefcovic has suggested a UK-EU agreement on checks between Great Britain and Northern Ireland could happen within weeks, with the right “political will”.

It comes as Rishi Sunak and Ursula von der Leyen agreed to “work together” to end the row over the Northern Ireland Protocol, when they met for the first time at COP27 in Egypt.

Mr Sefcovic, the European Commission vice-president and Brexit negotiator, made the comments in Westminster during a meeting of British and European parliamentarians.

He said: “This is the area where we do not seek any political victory. We just want to solve the problem.”

Discussing EU proposals to reduce checks, he said: “Is it too much to do this? Can we not find pragmatic, technical solutions to make this thing work?

“I believe it could be done, if there is political will, I’m sure that we can sort it out really within a couple of weeks because really both sides of our negotiating teams we know these topics from all angles.”

Earlier, Mr Sefcovic told parliamentarians that he did not believe the EU and the UK were “worlds apart” on the protocol.

In Egypt, the new prime minister met the European Commission president with Mr Sunak stressing the need to “find solutions” to the “very real problems” caused by the post-Brexit arrangements in the region.

Mr Sunak inherits from his predecessors Liz Truss and Boris Johnson the problem of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which is vocally opposed by unionists who claim it cuts off the region from the rest of the UK.