EU rejects re-drafting of Northern Ireland agreement, urges rhetoric to mark

BELFAST, Sept. 10 (Reuters) – The European Union rejected Britain’s demand to renegotiate its agreement regulating Northern Ireland’s trade position, saying it would only lead to instability and uncertainty.

European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic, who oversees relations with the UK after Brexit, said in a speech on Friday that the Northern Ireland protocol should be properly implemented and not the cause of the problems, but the only solution.

“A renegotiation of the protocol – as the UK government suggests – would mean instability, uncertainty and unpredictability in Northern Ireland,” he said, according to the text of his speech at Queen’s University Belfast.

Under the protocol, Britain agreed to leave some EU rules in Northern Ireland and accept controls on goods arriving from other parts of the UK in order to preserve an open land border with Ireland, a member of the EU. Since then, London has said the deal is not working and wants it to change.

Sefcovic, on a two-day visit to the British province, said the EU was looking for solutions for everyone, including those opposed to the protocol.

“I know we can work together, if the rhetoric is discreet on both sides,” he said, adding that the spirit of commitment had to be mutual.

Gavin Robinson, a member of Northern Ireland’s largest pro-British party, the Democratic Unionist Party, described Sefcovic’s comments as “belligerent”, “wrong” and “foolish”. Read more

Sefcovic said the EU was committed to working with Britain to overcome difficulties, but any solution could only minimize the effects of Brexit and not eliminate them altogether, given London’s decision to abandon the EU’s single market. EU and the customs union.

The commissioner said the two sides should continue discussions to limit the protocol’s impact on daily life in Northern Ireland, while maintaining their special access to the EU’s internal market.

Britain has said it wants a “normal treaty framework” that is not controlled by the European Court of Justice. Sefcovic said this would mean effectively removing Northern Ireland from the EU single market.

Report by Philip Blenkinsop in Brussels, Conor Humphries in Dublin; Edited by John Chalmers, Angus MacSwan and Mark Heinrich

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