04/10/2021 (Agence Europe) – The European Commission said, on Monday 4 October, that it was working “intensively” on practical solutions to alleviate the difficulties in Northern Ireland and that it would “soon make proposals” regarding this matter. It was reacting to the UK government’s plan to substantially revise the protocol for Ireland and Northern Ireland and its threat, again made on 4 October at the Tory party conference in Manchester, to activate Article 16 of the protocol. “Without an agreed solution soon, we will need to act, using the Article 16 safeguard mechanism, to address the impact the protocol is having on Northern Ireland”, David Frost told the annual policy meeting. The Commission, however, said that it did not want to react to the British minister’s comments, describing the UK’s membership of the EU as a “long nightmare”. (SP)