David Frost: The EU needs to review the Northern Ireland protocol

The writer is the UK Brexit Minister

This week, European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic and I will meet in London to hold the first UK-EU Partnership Council established under our new trade agreement. This is a historic moment. Despite the initial frictions, as is to be expected given the huge change in our relationship, I am confident that we will be able to resolve the ongoing difficulties as friendly and equally sovereign trading partners.

We will also review the withdrawal agreement and the operation of the Northern Ireland Protocol. Here things are more difficult.

When we agreed on this new protocol in 2019, we did so to eliminate the disastrous old “backstop” and to make Brexit possible, but to do so in a way that maintained our top priority of protecting the Belfast Agreement (Sait Friday). and avoid a hard border. It was a delicate balance, formed with a spirit of commitment. We hoped to be able to do it in a way that respected the sensitive policy of Northern Ireland – after all that was the point of making special arrangements in the first place.

We now have experience in protocol operation. This government has allocated huge resources to make it work. We have a support scheme for traders to help those who ship goods to Northern Ireland, we fund veterinarians and health certificates, we carry out checks in Larne and Belfast. We apply EU law to Northern Ireland as needed. We don’t lecture on whether we are implementing the protocol, we are.

But because we are operating under the EU legal framework, we have very limited discretion to apply the rules in a way that makes sense on the ground in Northern Ireland.

As a result, the balance we expected was not found. We are seeing political turmoil, with the loss of Prime Minister Arlene Foster, the change of direction of the UUP and the street protests. And there are real-world impacts on lives and livelihoods. We underestimated the effect of the protocol on the movement of goods to Northern Ireland, as some UK suppliers simply did not ship their products due to the processing of necessary documents. We have seen drug manufacturers reduce supply. And there are fewer options on supermarket shelves for consumers. The NI retail consortium has warned that when the grace period ends in October, supermarkets will face “real and serious problems”.

We are working 24 hours a day to resolve these issues by consensus. We have sent a number of policy documents to the EU to outline solutions. Last week we sent out a detailed proposal for a veterinary agreement based on equivalence and an authorized merchant scheme to reduce paperwork and checks. But we had very little back.

We want an approach based on the best interest of everyone in Northern Ireland. This means putting the Good Friday Agreement first and supporting rather than undermining the political process and institutions. This is perfectly compatible with a prudent risk-based approach to protect the EU single market as well and we accept our share of responsibility as a neighbor and exporter.

But it also requires common sense and an EU risk-based approach. The EU needs a new playbook to deal with neighbors, involving pragmatic solutions between friends, not the imposition of rules from one side to the other and legal purism.

In 2019 we agreed, as a huge commitment and for the greater good, to control certain movements of goods inside our own country and customs territory. If this situation is not to be totally unsustainable, we must be able to do so in ways that do not disrupt everyday life and that respect everyone’s identity and interests. We continue to work to get negotiated solutions that achieve this. But time is running out. We should see progress soon. I hope we can this week.