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UK proposes new text to replace Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol

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In a speech delivered in Lisbon (13 October), Lord Frost, the UK’s representative in EU-UK discussions announced that the UK has proposed a new legal text to replace the current Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol to replace the one already agreed in 2019. 

The proposal came a day ahead of an EU announcement to ease difficulties linked to what is called East/West trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, Vice President Sefčovič will put forward four proposals concerning medicines, sanitary and phyto-sanitary surveillance, customs and a way to enhance democratic governance of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Frost claims that the agreement reached with the EU in 2019 was done at haste and under duress. The deal agreed was the cornerstone of Prime Minister Johnson’s electoral campaign in 2019, where he claimed that the UK had negotiated an “oven ready deal”. Johnson was then able to steer the deal through parliament with a 80 seat majority in the House of Commons, seemingly receiving a democratic endorsement for his deal. 

The legal text that has been shared with the European Commission will try to reverse the EU’s two stage process where the Withdrawal Agreement was completed before negotiations on the later Trade and Cooperation agreement was reached.  Frost argues that it makes sense to review the Withdrawal Agreement given the thinness of the later deal he negotiated. 

Secondly, as heavily trailed in the media, the UK wants to remove the European Court of Justice from the arbitration over any disputes concerning EU law. As Northern Ireland continues to benefit from the Single Market in goods this would not be legally possible, this has already been established in EU law. Lord Frost argues that the current agreement cannot be part of a durable settlement.

Lord Frost is asking for nothing less than a reversal of the legal provisions of the Single Market which the EU cannot agree to. The EU negotiated the deal to avoid the creation of border infrastructure on the Ireland/Northern Ireland border, this was a shared view of the EU and UK throughout negotiations following the UK's referendum in 2016.

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