Photographer: Paul Faith / Bloomberg
Photographer: Paul Faith / Bloomberg
The UK and the European Union remain stuck in highlighting on how to implement the Brexit deal in Northern Ireland, despite more than three hours of talks between senior officials on Thursday.
Cabinet Minister Michael Gove and European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic held a rare face-to-face meeting in London, which their teams described as “frank but constructive”.
But they did not resolve the major trade disagreements that have exacerbated the UK-EU relationship in the six weeks following the end of Brexit.
Gove and Sefcovic promised to “intensify” their work “with the shared goal of finding viable solutions on the ground,” according to a joint statement issued after Thursday’s talks concluded.
Since the Brexit transition period ended on 31 December, tensions have risen between the two sides over a number of issues, including trade in financial services, the supply of Covid-19 vaccines and the flow of goods between the two countries. Continental Britain and Northern Ireland.
The part of the UK exit agreement covering Northern Ireland effectively kept the region in the EU customs and single market and imposed controls on goods crossing the Irish Sea from Britain. .
These checks are politically unpleasant for some in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative party, as well as for Northern Irish politicians who are passionate supporters of keeping their region in close union with the rest of the UK. Ireland, with store shelves empty as the flow of supplies dried up.
As a “mind blowing” mistake it created a dangerous confrontation of Brexit
Gove and Sefcovic pledged to meet again before Feb. 24 in an effort to resolve the difficulties. Earlier, British and European officials will hear companies in Northern Ireland complaining about the disruption of goods coming from mainland Britain since the UK left the EU trade regime on 31 December. .
At their meeting, the two men reiterated their commitment to the Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland and to the “correct implementation” of the Brexit agreement. According to the joint statement, they said “they will save no effort to implement mutually agreed solutions” with last year.
On 29 January, the European Commission briefly threatened to provoke an emergency clause in the Brexit divorce agreement to curb vaccine exports to Northern Ireland. This drastically increased tensions between the two sides.
Prior to the meeting, Gove said Northern Ireland’s part of the Brexit deal was not working and called for a re-establishment of the EU’s relationship with Britain. This was rejected by the EU, which said Britain needs to honor the promises it made in Northern Ireland as part of the Brexit deal.
(Updates with detail and context)