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Summary
- The Irish government has hinted at a possible truce between the European Union and the UK.
- The Northern Ireland Protocol necessitates checks on goods, like chilled meats, at ports while entering the UK.
- UK granted a grace period on border checks without any consultation process resulting in the EU opting for legal recourse.
After days of post-Brexit tension in Northern Ireland, the Irish government has hinted at a possible truce between the European Union (EU) and the UK.
Northern Ireland effectively remains a part of the EU customs union through the Northern Ireland Protocol, and that necessitates checks on goods like chilled meats at ports while entering the UK. This angered pro-UK unionists.
After the UK left the UK, the arrangement was worked out to protect Northern Ireland’s peace process by discounting border checks with EU member Ireland. UK granted a grace period on border checks without any consultation process resulting in the EU opting for legal recourse. UK has been pushing for an extension beyond 30 June. The decision was promptly overturned as uproar erupted in Dublin.
London ruled out totally abandoning the protocol. Brussels had in January briefly suspended the protocol to stop EU-bound Covid-19 vaccines from entering Northern Ireland. The UK has asked the EU to be flexible with imposing checks on items passing through the Irish Sea and claimed that such moves were disrupting the business environment in Northern Ireland and fanning unionist tensions.
Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney said that Dublin was strongly negotiating with the EU for not only more pragmatism and flexibility regarding the Northern Ireland Protocol, a part of the Brexit treaty but also adhering to what London agreed on.
Coveney said after talks with UK's Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis that progress on the discussions is expected to hopefully bear fruit this week because of Britain requesting for an extension of the grace period on frozen meats.
Both parties have signalled that they wanted tensions to end before July 12, a day for pro-UK unionists to commemorate historic events that entrenched Protestant rule in Northern Ireland in a Catholic majority Ireland.
EU has been accusing Britain that despite knowing what Brexit would mean for Northern Ireland, it has not been acting in good faith. In response, London has been pushing for bold changes to the protocol.
Boris Johnson’s spokesperson said that bold changes to the protocol were required to mitigate challenges being faced by people and businesses of Northern Ireland.
Lewis said that a formal response from the EU on the issue is awaited and that he was hopeful that the EU was looking pragmatically to the problem so as to offer a solution going forward.
Joao Vale de Almeida, EU ambassador, said that UK asking Brussels for extending the grace period was an encouraging sign, rather than a unilateral imposition like it did before.
Almeida said to a House of Lords panel that EU is trying to find a solution by going through all its regulations and that he was unhappy at UK, suggesting that the EU did not recognise Northern Ireland’s fragility. The Good Friday peace treaty of 1998 was signed after thirty years of violence.
He said that the EU was financially, economically, diplomatically, and even emotionally committed to Northern Ireland.
