The European Commission called on the UK government, on Monday 11 October, to focus on the “issues that matter the most to the people of Northern Ireland and not on requests such as removing the role of the European Court of Justice” in the protocol, which would “mean cutting Northern Ireland off from the EU’s single market”.
Commission spokesman Daniel Ferrie was reacting to comments made over the weekend by Minister David Frost that the proposals the Commission is due to present on 13 October to ease constraints in Northern Ireland will only be of use if they remove the supervisory role given to the Court of Justice of the EU. The minister is expected to formalise this request on 12 October, during a speech in Lisbon.
For Ireland’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Simon Coveney, London simply wants to “change the rules of the game” and create a “new red line” with the Court of Justice of the EU,AFP reported.
Announced several weeks ago, the proposals that the Commission intends to present, on Wednesday 13 October, will not be legislative texts, but reflection papers aimed at opening discussions with the British government.
They will aim, in particular, to facilitate the export of generic medicines to the province of Northern Ireland from Great Britain, to relax phytosanitary and customs controls or to better involve Northern Irish civil society in the discussions on the Northern Ireland Protocol and to create structures for dialogue with the Europeans.
A Commission team will be in London on 13 October to present these ideas, which Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič is expected to present publicly at the end of the day. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)