Brussels has warned that relations with the UK over Northern Ireland are deteriorating
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Britain’s relations with the EU are increasingly in jeopardy as a result of the UK’s refusal to fully establish its successor position.Brexi obligations in Northern Ireland, warned a senior Brussels official.
Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s one-time EU liaison, said the two sides wanted to agree on a joint “roadmap” in early June that would provide a clear timetable for resolving issues related to the expansion of new trade agreements. region.
While the EU is showing “creativity and pragmatism” in the talks, the same cannot be said of the UK, the bloc’s Brexit commissioner told the Financial Times, revealing that his British counterpart David Frost had warned of greater patience with EU member states.
“Actually, all of these solutions come from our side,” Sefcovic said. “It’s pretty clear that if we don’t see positive developments, the atmosphere would be more sour, [making it] it is more difficult to seek political compromises. The political environment would be much more difficult. “
Crunch encounter
Sefcovic said the meeting proposed by the EU-UK joint Brexit committee in the week of June 7 was the time to agree on a “joint approach” to resolving differences over the functioning of the Northern Ireland trade border. EU-UK officials have been working on such a plan since April.
Both sides are concerned tensions Before the so-called marching season in Northern Ireland, the Protestant Order Laran of the region holds traditional parades.
The Northern Ireland Protocol The UK’s 2019 EU withdrawal treaty created a UK-administered trade and veterinary restriction on the Irish Sea to prevent north-south controls on the island of Ireland. But that has been highly controversial in the region’s unionist community, which contributed to the riot in April.
Sefcovic said the EU has been working hard to resolve the irritants associated with the protocol that has emerged since the new EU-UK trade agreement came into force on 1 January – including the movement of dog drivers and tariffs between Northern Ireland and the UK. steel, VAT on second-hand cars and a more general problem around food safety controls.
However, “we still don’t have the basic answers on the UK side,” Sefcovic said, stressing the EU’s demands for real-time access to IT systems to control trade, as well as the need for clear plans for UK development and staff development. goods border controls.
“Increased patience” with the UK
He warned Freezes in last week’s call, “there was no patience in the EU [to see] Solutions that the UK will now put on the table ”in order to meet its obligations under the Protocol.
In contrast, the UK believes that the EU is becoming more flexible in its need to control products going from Britain to Northern Ireland.
“The EU continues to treat the Irish Maritime regulatory border as if it were any other external border in the EU, even though there is very little risk in the single market,” a UK government spokesman said.
“This reduces accessibility and availability on supermarket shelves, suspends shipments, causes vendors selling products and interfering with the movement of pets and packages. Such a permanent disruption is detrimental to any protocol,” the spokesman added.
Sefcovic said the EU needs to ensure the “integrity” of its single market by ensuring that products are properly tested, but the UK has confirmed an offer. Swiss style Veterinary agreement that will eliminate the need for food safety controls – a step that Britain refuses would involve constant alignment with EU rules. He added that Brussels was working hard to find practical solutions for marketing irritants: “I really don’t know what else we could do.”
It is likely that next month’s decisive joint committee meeting will take place with another EU-UK trade-oriented meeting and Joe Biden’s decision to hold a G7 summit in the UK. It has been speculated in EU capitals that the US president’s visit to Europe will allow him to move forward with the Northern Ireland trade agreements.
Legal threat
Sefcovic said Britain needs to realize that Brussels is also a “political space” and that it cannot tell EU governments to “leave the situation” “here are 10 things I have fixed for the UK”, “zero, nothing”, when the capitals asked what to achieve in return.
Brussels is also up and running judicial action Against the United Kingdom, after unilaterally extending certain terms, from the ordinary conditions of business of goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Sefcovic said Brussels ‘response to Brussels’ complaints had been “disappointing” and that the EU could be left with no choice but to escalate the conflict in June “if we did not hear anything more constructive in the joint commission”.
This means moving to the final procedural step before taking Britain before the European Court of Justice.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has elected Sefcovic, who has been Slovakia’s EU commissioner since 2009, after Brussels stepped down as Brexit chief negotiator this year to direct the implementation of agreements with the United Kingdom. Michel barnier.
It’s a job of high pressure, as EU capitals are increasingly angry that some parts of the new relationship are not going to bed. This includes not only Northern Ireland, but also fishing rights and work permits for Europe and Central and Eastern Europe.
Sefcovic said there has been outrage in the EU after arriving in the UK without a visa after learning that some EU citizens are in immigration detention centers. “You can imagine how my phone is ringing, how many letters I’m receiving,” he said, adding that he has had a productive relationship with the UK Home Office ever since.
Sefcovic said he hoped to work with London on a positive agenda to ensure that Northern Ireland achieves the unique nature of being part of the EU’s single goods market and part of the UK market.
The protocol “should become a great option for Northern Ireland,” he said.
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