The trucks pass through safety at the port of Larne in Northern Ireland.
Photographer: Mark Marlow / Bloomberg
Photographer: Mark Marlow / Bloomberg
Boris Johnson threatened to suspend some parts of the Northern Ireland-related Brexit deal as a dispute intensified following the European Union’s threat to impose border controls in a dispute over the supply of vaccines .
On Wednesday he responded in Parliament to allegations that he had “betrayed” the province by agreeing to carry out controls on goods between Britain and Northern Ireland, the prime minister said he would act.
“We will do everything we can to do it, either legislatively or by invoking Article 16 of the Protocol, to ensure that there are no barriers in the Irish Sea,” Johnson told the House of Commons.
Traders have faced the relocation of goods to the province from the rest of the UK due to the new customs controls and formalities required in the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol agreed in the framework of the Brexit agreement with the EU just over a month ago. Article 16 is an emergency trigger that allows either party to intervene if the application of the protocol creates “serious economic, social or environmental difficulties”.
Tensions over Northern Ireland have risen significantly last week, especially since the European Commission announced it would activate Article 16 a controlling vaccine exports to Northern Ireland, hiding the UK and Irish government and infuriating unionist political leaders.
Although the EU admitted that its decision was wrong and withdrew within hours, the debacle runs the risk of reopening one of the most controversial aspects of the Brexit negotiations.
“Betrayed”
“I speak for all my constituents today when I tell you that the Protocol has betrayed us and made us feel like foreigners in our country, ”Democratic Unionist Ian Paisley told Johnson in the House of Commons.
Under the terms of the Brexit agreement Johnson signed, Northern Ireland, unlike the rest of the UK, remained in the customs union and the EU’s single market to both avoid creating a visible border with the Republic of Ireland how to restart decades of sectarian conflict.
In contrast, goods face complex controls when they cross the Irish Sea. But to alleviate the pain, not all controls were introduced when the UK’s post-Brexit transition period ended on 31 December. However, companies have complained about delays and interruptions in moving goods from one part of the UK to another while port staff were working. they have faced threats of violence.
Photographer: Simon Dawson / Bloomberg
In a letter strongly written by Bloomberg condemning EU action on vaccines, UK Cabinet Minister Michael Gove called on European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic to extend the grace periods covering trade in some products until 2023. meet on Wednesday afternoon, along with the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.
‘Serious Error’
In the letter, Gove described the Commission’s decision as a “grave error”, adding that “feelings of disappointment were particularly acute given the concerns that had already arisen about the practical functioning of the Protocol and its economic effects and social”.
Updating the UK Parliament on Tuesday, Gove was blunt about the damage he believed the EU had done, and said the European Commission in Brussels had “damaged” it.
“The last few days have seen an increase in community tension,” Gove said. “We will work over the next few days to resolve the difficulties on the ground.”
Under the terms of the Brexit agreement, authorities were granted grace periods on checks on shipments between Britain and Northern Ireland related to supermarkets and their suppliers, refrigerated meats, medicines and parcel deliveries. Extending them to 2023 would take the arrangements beyond the next elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly scheduled for May 2022.
“Different space”
Prior to his appearance in Parliament on Wednesday, Johnson held talks with the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Arlene Foster. Paisley said the meeting was positive.
“The prime minister is in a very different space,” Paisley said. “He was blinded,” he added. “It has now moved away from that fearsome language that we saw as just ‘teething problems.'”
EU and UK officials have temporarily halted some controls in the region’s ports after what the Midtran and East Antrim Council called “an increase in sinister and threatening behavior”. This included “graffiti in the local area which refers to the growing tensions surrounding the Northern Ireland Protocol and which describe port staff as targets”.
The EU told staff working in Northern Ireland not to go to work on Tuesday, a day after the region stopped physical inspections of animal products in the ports of Belfast and Larne for safety reasons. Documentary checks will continue and the measure will remain under review, the Northern Ireland Ministry of Agriculture said in a statement.
– With the assistance of Emily Ashton, Peter Flanagan and Tim Ross