The EU has issued its toughest warning yet as talks remain stalled with the UK on the Northern Ireland protocol.

Following talks with Britain’s Brexit minister Lord Frost, European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic threatened the UK with “serious consequences” should it invoke Article 16.

The tough words followed strong words from Lord Frost as he went into talks.

The Brexit minister warned the threat of invoking the Article remained “on the table” and time is running out if the EU wants to avoid that outcome.

The Northern Ireland Protocol allowed Brexit to happen without a border on the island of Ireland. It provided for customs checks on certain goods crossing the Irish Sea between the island of Ireland and mainland Britain.

Under the terms of the protocol, Article 16 can be invoked by a signatory if it believes it is causing serious economic difficulties. The UK government says it believes that moment came some time ago.

Invoking Article 16 could suspend customs checks across the Irish Sea. That would threaten the European Single Market. It is regarded in Brussels as the nuclear option and could lead to immediate retaliatory consequences.

The EU could suspend the UK-EU trade deal, which could threaten the Brexit agreement itself. The entire post-Brexit settlement could even start to unravel.

Despite that alarming prospect, there was no sign of a breakthrough in these latest talk. Instead, mutual recriminations.

Vice president Sefcovic lamented: “Until today, we have seen no move at all from the UK side. I find this disappointing and once again, I urge the UK government to engage with us sincerely.”

For their part, the British complained after the meeting that “progress had been limited and that the EU’s proposals did not currently deal effectively with the fundamental difficulties in the way the protocol was operating”.

A significant gap remains between the two sides and – although talks will continue – without some skilful creative diplomacy, a further breach in relations seems more than likely, threatening a major rupture in trading relations between the UK and EU.

Mr. Sefcovic returns to London for talks next week. Today he called it an important week. We may well be reaching a make or break point in negotiations.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/brexit-eu-issues-toughest-warning-yet-as-talks-with-uk-remain-stalled-on-northern-ireland-protocol-12460866

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It would be prioritizing “EU internal processes over relieving turbulence in Northern Ireland”, he told diplomats on Tuesday while blasting the Protocol’s effect on the Good Friday Agreement.

He set out the UK’s new legal text for the Protocol, with the EU’s own proposals for a revised Protocol to be unveiled on Wednesday.

The UK’s proposals include changing the legal basis of the Protocol to that of a Treaty governed by international law, not EU law policed by the European Court of Justice. The current Protocol, he said, meant the EU could “make laws which apply in Northern Ireland without any kind of democratic scrutiny or discussion.”

Speaking in Lisbon, ahead of intensive talks later this month, the Brexit minister claimed that the “balance” created by the Good Friday Agreement “is being shredded by the way this Protocol is working”.

“The Northern Ireland Protocol is the biggest source of mistrust between us and for all kinds of reasons we need to fix this problem,” he added.

The Protocol was implemented to prevent a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in the wake of Brexit by keeping Northern Ireland in the EU’s single market for goods.

“The protocol is not working, it has completely lost consent in one community in Northern Ireland… it is doing the opposite of the thing it was set up to do, protect the Belfast Good Friday Agreement”.

Lord Frost also accused the EU for using Northern Ireland as a route to overturn the referendum result.

The Brexit minister said: “There’s a widespread feeling in the UK that the EU did try to use Northern Ireland to encourage UK political forces to reverse the referendum result, or at least to keep us closely aligned with EU.”

He emphasized that the UK-EU deadlock over the deal must be resolved so the western nations can cooperate against threats from China and Russia.

The UK and the EU “would have a chance to move forward to a new, and better, equilibrium,” he explained, if the bloc would accept that the European Court of Justice must be removed from its oversight role.

He said Brexit was a “democratic project” and argued that it meant the UK no longer had an interest in coalition-building across the EU to reform its rules, despite having a strong interest in the prosperity of EU member-states.

He claimed that leaving the EU offered “genuine competition”, which he described as the historic precondition to innovation.

He also reaffirmed his comments made to the House of Lords in September, in which he said that it would be a “significant mistake” to assume the UK would not trigger Article 16 – the part of the Northern Ireland Protocol which permits elements of the deal being temporarily suspended if they are evidenced to be causing “serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties that are liable to persist, or to diversion of trade.”

Last week it was reported that the European Commission would offer an exception to the Protocol which would permit “national identity goods” such as sausage to enter the region, despite general EU rules restricting chilled meats from non-EU countries.

Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission Vice-President, is expected to set out the bloc’s proposals tomorrow.

Source: https://www.politics.co.uk/news/2021/10/12/lord-frost-accuses-eu-of-historic-misjudgment-over-northern-ireland-protocol/

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“Deal or no deal, the Withdrawal Agreement must be respected,” European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic told the European Parliament.

Sefcovic said the EU is committed to reaching a deal on the trade agreement and other aspects of their future relationship, but that the two sides remain “far apart” on the issues of fisheries and the so-called level playing field of fair competition.

“Our objective is still to reach an agreement that will pave the way for a new fruitful relationship between the EU and UK. We will continue to work for such an agreement, but not at any price,” he said.

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