Brexit: UK set to renew EU hostilities with call for courts overhaul in Northern Ireland Protocol
The UK is set to reignite hostilities with the EU over the Northern Ireland Protocol, with Boris Johnson’s Brexit minister to call for an overhaul of how the treaty is legally overseen.
Lord David Frost will say removing the European Union of Justice’s (CJEU) jurisdiction over the post-Brexit protocol will be a new “red line” in negotiations this week as he renews threats to trigger Article 16 and suspend the treaty.
The UK and EU are locked in negotiations over how to implement the Northern Ireland Protocol, with Brussels set to bring forward its latest proposal next week.
The row so far has largely been over border checks for goods travelling between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, however Frost is set to widen the debate to include governance of the protocol.
The Sunday Telegraph reported that Frost will say in Lisbon on Tuesday that “no one should be in any doubt about the seriousness of the situation”, and that “the commission have been too quick to dismiss governance as a side issue. The reality is the opposite.”
The comments quickly sparked a tit-for-tat row between Frost and Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney over Twitter.
Coveney suggested Downing Street do not want to find a solution to issues surrounding the Northern Ireland Protocol, saying “the EU [is] working seriously to resolve practical issues with implementation of protocol…so [the UK government] creates a new ‘red line’ barrier to progress, that they know EU can’t move on”.
Frost shot back and said the “issue of governance and the CJEU is not new…the problem is that too few people seem to have listened”.
The protocol is a part of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement and sees Northern Ireland follow the EU’s customs union and single market rules, unlike the rest of the UK, in order to avoid a hard border with the Republic of Ireland.
This has created a so-called border in the Irish Sea, which has infuriated many parts of the unionist community who say it separates Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.
Boris Johnson has called for less stringent checks on goods going between Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the EU, claiming that it is causing political and economic difficulties, and that he is willing to trigger Article 16 and rip up the protocol.
The EU says checks are necessary to prevent unauthorised goods entering the EU and that they are acting within the framework of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic, who will next week bring forward proposals on how to implement the protocol, said the threats from London are “unhelpful” and “distracts us from working together to find solutions”.
“It has taken us five long years to get where we are today. So it is clear that there are no quick, easy-fix solutions to what is a extremely complex situation,” he said.
The Telegraph reports that Frost will say on Tuesday: “We are working to reflect the concerns of everyone in Northern Ireland, from all sides of the political spectrum, to make sure that the peace process is not undermined. The EU now needs to show ambition and willingness to tackle the fundamental issues at the heart of the protocol head on.
“The UK-EU relationship is under strain, but it doesn’t have to be this way. By putting the protocol on a durable footing, we have the opportunity to move past the difficulties of the past year.”
Frost wants to redraw the treaty and to rely on an “honesty box” approach, which would see exporters from Great Britain declare whether or not their goods were intended for sale outside Northern Ireland.
Brussels has flatly rejected this and are only open to discussions on how to implement the current text.