Northern Ireland protocol: UK calls for EU to show same flexibility offered to Ukraine to resolve standoff
The EU must display the flexibility it has shown during the Ukraine crisis to solve the standoff over the Northern Ireland protocol, government sources have warned just days before the row is set to come to a head.
Sources told The Independent the bloc had shown enormous agility when it took in huge numbers of people almost overnight after Vladimir Putin’s Russia invaded Ukraine.
But they added the UK would be forced to act if there was not some of the same flexibility and creativity applied to the protocol, which ministers insist is threatening the Belfast peace process.
Despite warnings the move would break international law and lead to a trade war with the EU, ministers are this week expected to push ahead and publish legislation that would allow the government to unilaterally modify part of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal.
Senior EU figures have warned a solution will not be found while the UK is threatening to tear up a legal treaty.
Ireland’s foreign minister also took the extraordinary step of calling on members of Mr Johnson’s government to intervene to urge the prime minister to pull back from the brink.
Simon Coveney urged influential voices within the UK government to caution the prime minister to co-operate with the EU to find a solution instead.
And, in a separate development, Britain’s former ambassador to the EU warned there was a “severe risk” the UK was heading into a trade war.
Sir Ivan Rogers said the idea felt like “madness” at the same time as the worst conflict on European soil since the Second World War and the real risk of a recession in both the eurozone and the UK “but I think there is a severe risk of it happening,” he told BBC Radio 4’s The World This Weekend.
Mr Coveney is due to discuss the protocol with the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, on Monday evening, but stressed he was ready to fly to London at short notice to find a way through the standoff.
Mr Coveney said the EU wanted to be good neighbours with the UK, “solving problems together.”
“I would encourage the influencers within the UK government to ensure that’s the course they decide to take,” he toldSophy Ridge on Sunday on Sky News.
In a message to ministers, he warned: “There’s no way the EU can compromise if the UK is threatening unilateral action to pass domestic legislation to set aside international obligations under an international treaty.”
And he said the events of recent days had “forced Ireland into taking a much more strident position and responding honestly to the unhelpful briefings that we’re getting from very, very senior levels within the British government.”
Mr Johnson is understood to be keen to take the heat out of the war of words with the EU over the issue. On a visit to Belfast on Monday he is expected to emphasise his commitment to the Northern Ireland peace process.
But he will also deliver a “tough” message to parties there that action on protocol must lead to the resumption of the powersharing government.
Shadow climate secretary Ed Miliband urged Mr Johnson not to “try and use Northern Ireland as a political weapon” but “engage seriously” with the issue.
