UK, EU Agree to Intensify Talks on Northern Ireland Post-Brexit Protocol

LONDON (Sputnik) – The UK and the European Union agreed on Friday to intensify talks in Brussels next week on the Northern Ireland Protocol, amid an ongoing controversy over the fulfillment of the post-Brexit agreement regulating trade in the British province.

“Intensified talks will take place between teams in Brussels next week on all issues, giving particular attention to medicines and customs issues,” a spokesperson for the UK government said in a statement following a meeting in London between the UK Brexit Minister David Frost and EU Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic.

As part of the Brexit agreement that went into force in January, there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, but under the protocol all goods and animal-based products coming from the rest of the British territories must be checked upon arrival to see if they comply with EU sanitary regulations.

The UK government has argued that the protocol is not working, as it causes delays and interruptions to goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and irritates loyalists of the British crown who believe their place within the union could be affected.

In October, the EU offered to cut checks on food, plants and animal products by 80% and paperwork for transport companies by half, but London argued that there is still a big gap, forcing the entire protocol to be renegotiated and threatening to trigger Article 16 of the withdrawal agreement, which allows London and Brussels to temporarily abandon commitments made in the trade agreement.

According to the spokesperson, Frost told Sefcovic that the UK preferred to find a consensual way forward, but that Article 16 safeguards were a legitimate part of the protocol's provisions.