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EU and US in agreement that UK needs to stick to Northern Ireland Protocol

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Today (10 November), the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen met with United States President Joe Biden in the White House where a number of pressing issues were discussed from the situation with Belarus to Ukraine, but the leaders also spoke about the current problems with the UK reneging on its commitments made in the Northern Ireland Protocol.  

Following the meeting, von der Leyen said: “We are willing as a European Union to show the utmost flexibility and we have shown the utmost flexibility within the protocol, but it is important to stick to what we have agreed and signed together to work with that. 

“President Biden and I, we share the assessment that it is important for peace and stability on the island of Ireland to keep the withdrawal agreement and to stick to the protocol.”

The meeting takes place a day after senior U.S. representatives from influential committees issued a statement on the “UK’s threat to invoke Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol. 

Representatives Gregory W. Meeks, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, William R. Keating, Chair of the Europe, Energy, the Environment and Cyber Subcommittee, Earl Blumenauer, Chair of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade, and Brendan Boyle, stated:

“The Northern Ireland Protocol was a significant achievement during the volatile Brexit process, and its full implementation is critical for ensuring Brexit doesn’t undermine decades of progress toward peace on the island of Ireland. 

“The Good Friday Agreement and broader peace process took patience and time to build, with good faith contributions from the communities in Northern Ireland, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and others. However, peace can unravel quickly.  

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“In threatening to invoke Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol, the United Kingdom threatens to not only destabilize trade relations, but also that hard earned peace. We call on the UK to abandon this dangerous path, and to commit to implementing the Northern Ireland Protocol in full.”

Speaking in the House of Lords today, Lord Frost said that the Commission’s package of proposals to address some business and stakeholder concerns were “worth discussing”. 

Frost said that talks were underway to discuss other important questions “such as the interlinked issues of the imposition of EU law and the Court of Justice, state aid, VAT, goods standards, and so on.”

The government, according to Frost, has not yet given up on the process but in due course could use safeguarding measures allowed under Article 16 of the Protocol. Frost reassured peers that if Article 16 were to be used, the government would set out its case “with confidence and spell out why it was wholly consistent with our legal obligations.” Frost also said that the EU “suggests that we can only take that action at the price of massive and disproportionate retaliation.”

In response to Frost’s statement, Baroness Chapman of Darlington said: “Central to this are the people and communities of Northern Ireland. The evidence increasingly shows that they want a deal between the EU and UK, not another stand-off, with all the uncertainty that that brings. The respected Liverpool Institute for Irish Studies found that people of Northern Ireland oppose the use of Article 16 and instead want solutions [...].

“It is time for the Minister to show some responsibility. He should work constructively with the EU to find solutions, and then, if he still can, given everything that has happened, he must play an active role in rebuilding support and trust among all communities in Northern Ireland.”

European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič will meet with Northern Irish businesses and stakeholders again tomorrow.

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