The Vice-President of the European Commission, Maroš Šefčovič, briefed the national ambassadors of the Member States to the EU, on Wednesday 10 November, on the state of play of the exchanges with the United Kingdom on the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland and reiterated the “seriousness” of the situation and the “disappointment” of the Commission, for the time being, in terms of the results.
While there are rumours that London will soon activate Article 16 of the protocol, which would allow the suspension of some of its provisions on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the EU states have not yet wished to define a response to a scenario that is still “hypothetical” and wanted to leave “ every chance” to the exchanges that are still taking place this week on the subject, a source reported.
Mr Šefčovič will meet his British counterpart, David Frost, again on 12 November, after another week of discussions on the proposals made by the Commission on 13 October to ease trade with the British province.
For his part, Mr Frost reacted on 10 November to the possibility that the EU might reinstate quotas and tariffs on British products in retaliation for Article 16, as suggested by Dublin, calling on the bloc to “calm”.
He said that there was still work to be done in the negotiations with the EU and “that he was not ready to give up yet”, the Reutersnews agency reported.
“This process of negotiations has not reached its end, (...) there remain possibilities that the talks have not yet seriously examined”, the minister said. “There is more to do and I certainly will not give up on this process, unless and until, it is abundantly clear that nothing more can be done. We are certainly not at that point yet”, he added. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)