On Wednesday 13 October, the European Commission proposed new ways of improving the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland to improve the lives of Northern Irish citizens and try to open a new channel of discussion with London, while the British government has just reopened the debate on the role of the Court of Justice of the EU, which it wants to remove from the Withdrawal Agreement signed in 2019, and is threatening to activate Article 16 of the Protocol.
Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, who is expected to meet his British counterpart David Frost shortly, described the moment as “very important” and said that he hoped for a “positive agenda” with London.
He said that he wants to “find joint solutions in the coming weeks” and claimed he was “confident”, as his proposals fully address the concerns he heard “on the ground” during his talks with Northern Irish stakeholders.
The vice-president has put forward four discussion papers - non-papers - proposing, among other things, a substantial relaxation of the modalities of sanitary and phytosanitary controls and of the rules for controls on products of animal origin. The package also covers customs controls, through a relatively large reduction in red tape, and the generic medicines sector, where the Commission has taken up the ideas it outlined on 30 June, notably to allow marketing authorisations for medicines to be granted by bodies based in Great Britain and not exclusively in Northern Ireland (this will require the EU to change its own rules). Governance, with a proposal to better involve Northern Irish society in dialogues between London and the EU, is also part of the package.
80% of required controls removed
But in concrete terms, it is the relaxation of export controls on goods and food - including animal products - between Great Britain and Northern Ireland that is the big news in the package, with the vice-president saying that his proposal will have “a real and tangible impact” on the ground.
The measures envisaged could lead to the removal of 80% of the identity and physical checks currently required. In return, the UK government would commit to completing the construction of permanent border control posts, ensuring specific packaging and labelling to indicate that the products concerned are intended for sale in the UK only, and enhanced monitoring of supply chains.
Trucks carrying different types of foodstuffs will only have to fill out one certificate attesting to their compliance with EU rules, rather than one certificate for each product transported. A fast-track system could also be set up.
In case of problems, the Commission would have the right to reinstate unilateral measures.
On customs controls, the Commission proposes to extend the concept of products that do not present a substantial risk of entering the EU market (via the Republic of Ireland), with the aim, here, of halving the administrative burden.
More products and medium-sized companies would be affected by this change, which will exempt them from collecting customs duties on behalf of the EU, whereas currently only very small companies with a low turnover can be exempted from these taxes collected on behalf of the EU.
This means that quick lines and a simple document containing basic information, such as the purchase value of the goods and the identity of the parties involved in the transaction, are proposed rather than a scrupulous follow-up of all the steps foreseen by the European Customs Code.
The UK government and the provincial authorities would commit to providing Europeans with real-time access to databases - a request already made by the Commission earlier this year and which could be put into place by early 2022 - and to strengthening market surveillance.
The Commission has also provided for safeguards, such as a revision clause or a suspension of the provisions if problems arise.
On democratic participation, it proposed that the Northern Ireland Assembly should have a greater role in the EU-UK Parliamentary Assembly. Northern Irish officials will be invited to more meetings of the specialised committees, and new structures for dialogue - for example, on customs - would be created, although this would still need to be discussed with the UK if it agrees in principle.
The Court of Justice, a non-issue
But the Commission will not come back to London with a new governance package that would include the Court of Justice of the EU, an EU source insisted earlier in the day, not understanding how “constitutional issues can have an impact on trade problems” between the Northern Irish province and Great Britain. Renegotiating the protocol would also create “uncertainty, which is the opposite of what we need”.
“It is very clear that you cannot have access to the single market (of which Northern Ireland is a part) without the supervision of the Court of Justice of the European Union” the vice-president also said, calling on his British counterparts “to put aside this business of red lines or deadlines, real or artificial” and to “focus” on the needs expressed by Northern Irish stakeholders.
The vice-president also indicated that the topic of the Court of Justice had only been raised once during his various visits to the province.
Link to the proposals: https://bit.ly/3DCCHng (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)