Brussels, London In the Northern Ireland dispute, the EU Commission goes far to meet the British government. She wants to significantly reduce customs controls at the maritime border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Northern Irish stakeholders are also to have a greater say in the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
“The package has the potential to make a real difference on the ground,” said the EU Commission’s Brexit representative, Vice President Maros Sefcovic, when presenting the reform on Wednesday in Brussels. He presented four documents on customs, hygiene controls, medication and governance. Sefcovic said that all groups in Northern Ireland were listened to and their criticism of the protocol was accepted.
Among other things, the EU is offering to abolish border controls for 80 percent of goods. That would mean that only half as many trucks would have to be checked as before. Trucks with goods destined for Northern Ireland only are allowed into the country unchecked.
In particular, British food and medicines should be easier to import into Northern Ireland. The regulations for animal and vegetable products would be massively relaxed. The import ban on fresh minced meat and sausages is lifted. For large supermarket deliveries with different foods, individual health certificates would no longer be required for each product, but only one for the entire load.
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“We show great flexibility, but the remaining controls have to be carried out properly,” said Sefcovic. Therefore, the British government must set up the promised border posts and introduce clear product labels. Electronic monitoring of supply chains also needs to be improved. So far, the EU border authorities have received British customs information ex post. From the beginning of 2022, they should have real-time access to the databases.
Peace offer from Sefcovic
In Northern Ireland, the EU’s proposals were welcomed. In London, too, it was noted with goodwill that the EU Commission is now responding to the complaints about the Northern Ireland Protocol.
British companies have been struggling with the new border bureaucracy since Brexit at the beginning of the year. Because Northern Ireland is the only British part of the European single market, deliveries from the rest of Great Britain are checked upon arrival in the Northern Irish ports. As a result, trade between Northern Ireland and the British mainland has collapsed.
The British government therefore called in July to renegotiate the Northern Ireland Protocol agreed in 2019. “It doesn’t work,” Brexit Minister David Frost repeated in a speech in Lisbon on Tuesday. It has to be fundamentally changed.
With the dismantling of the border bureaucracy, Sefcovic is now making an offer of peace to his negotiating partner Frost. However, the vice-commissioner did not respond to a central British demand.
Frost calls for the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to be removed as the final authority for overseeing the protocol. In his view, a sovereign state cannot accept any foreign jurisdiction on its territory. Instead, the Brexit minister advocates independent arbitration courts, as is common with trade agreements.
For the EU, however, the role of the Court of Justice is non-negotiable; after all, the supervisory authority is an indispensable part of the internal market. On top of that, Great Britain has approved the role of the ECJ in the exit treaty.
Sefcovic evaded the question about the ECJ in the press conference on Wednesday. “Our goal today is to stay positive and focus on the benefits of the package for Northern Ireland,” he said.
But the Commission’s position is clear. “The Northern Ireland Protocol is intended to extend the EU internal market to Northern Ireland. And that is linked to the ECJ, “says a senior EU official. “Anyone who does not accept the ECJ will force Northern Ireland out of the internal market.”
The question sounds technical, but it is central. Because Northern Ireland is only in the internal market because the British and Europeans wanted to avoid any border installations on the EU’s external border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. If Northern Ireland were to leave the internal market, border controls would have to take place at the land border. As in the past, the border posts could be targeted by militant nationalists.
The EU’s tactic is not to talk about the big controversy of the European Court of Justice, if possible, but rather about practical issues in which the everyday life of the Northern Irish can be improved. If the British government showed the same pragmatism instead of focusing on abstract things like the court and sovereignty, then the differences could be bridged, said the EU official.
The offer is not enough for the British
Frost and Sefcovic want to intensify their talks in the coming weeks. However, an agreement is not yet in sight. Because Frost had already emphasized on Tuesday that the new offer from the EU was not sufficient. He continues to insist that the Tribunal be removed from the record. European law is currently being applied in Northern Ireland without the population having a say, said Frost. That is an untenable situation.
The minister threatened that if the EU did not move on the issue, Great Britain would seek Article 16 of the protocol and suspend border controls. In turn, the EU could use this as an opportunity to counterattack: it could impose punitive tariffs on British products, which would result in a trade war. In Brussels it is said that they are at the end of their patience with the British.
Europeans’ distrust in Downing Street was fueled on Wednesday by comments from Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s former chief advisor. Dominic Cummings tweeted that the government had planned from the outset to overturn the Northern Ireland Protocol at a later date. It is the government’s job to “deceive foreigners”, the ex-advisor defended the procedure.
Cummings has been on a vengeance campaign since Johnson’s firing, so his comments should be treated with caution. But they immediately made waves in the EU. “These statements are very alarming because they suggest that the government acted with bad faith,” said Irish Vice Prime Minister Leo Varadkar the RTE. Varadkar had agreed the Northern Ireland Protocol at the time as Prime Minister with Johnson. The lesson for governments around the world is that this British government is not necessarily keeping its word, said Varadkar.
More: Britain and the EU are heading for a trade war.