UK government threatens to suspend Northern Ireland protocol

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

UK government threatens to suspend Northern Ireland protocol

Brexit minister Lord Frost tells House of Lords that the European Commission must take renegotiation proposals seriously

Lisa O'Carroll Brexit correspondent
@lisaocarroll
Mon 13 Sep 2021 19.03 BST

The row over Brexit and Northern Ireland has escalated after the UK government issued a new warning to the EU that it will not shy away from unilaterally suspending the Northern Ireland protocol agreed by Boris Johnson last year.

Lord Frost, the Brexit minister, told the House of Lords on Monday night that the EU should take the UK’s proposals to renegotiate part of the protocol “seriously” if it wanted to avoid the protocol collapsing.

He said his July command paper had set out the tests the UK would apply to trigger article 16 of the protocol, which allows either side to suspend the protocol if it is deemed as having a significant impact on everyday life.

“I urge the EU to take this seriously. They would be making a significant mistake if they thought that we were not ready to use article 16 safeguards, if that is our only choice to deal with the situation in front of us. If we are to avoid article 16, there must be a real negotiation between us and the EU.”

The Brexit minister was speaking just days after his Brussels counterpart, Maroš Šefčovič, the joint head of the EU-UK partnership council, told the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) to “dial down the rhetoric” after it threatened to collapse Stormont over the protocol.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/sep/13/uk-government-threatens-to-suspend-northern-ireland-protocol

[OnDoutside]

1. I urge the EU to take this seriously....lol.