Brussels warns London over NI protocol

Businesspeople appeal for sides to stop bickering, work together on problems

The European Union will take action against the United Kingdom if London continues to ignore their agreement on avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland.

The warning was delivered by Maros Sefcovic, the vice-president of the European Commission, in a column on Tuesday in The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

He said the bloc will act "firmly and resolutely" if London continues to ignore parts of the Northern Ireland protocol contained within the Brexit divorce deal.

Sefcovic complained London had unilaterally declared and extended so-called grace periods to avoid meeting its obligations.

"Unfortunately, we see numerous and fundamental gaps in the UK's implementation-even though the protocol entered into force over 17 months ago," Sefcovic wrote.

The free, business-focused newspaper City A.M. said the UK has infuriated the EU by not fully implementing the protocol, especially in relation to supermarket products and parcels shipped into Northern Ireland from the UK mainland.

Sefcovic said a joint committee of officials and politicians from both sides that is set to meet in London on Wednesday should oversee the UK's future adherence to the protocol.

"Mutually agreed compliance paths, with concrete deadlines and milestones for the UK to fulfil its existing obligations, would therefore be an important stepping stone," he said. "If this does not happen, and if the UK takes further unilateral action over the coming weeks, the EU will not be shy in reacting swiftly, firmly and resolutely."

The Northern Ireland protocol attempts to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, which is an EU member, by keeping Northern Ireland within the EU's single market for goods and therefore adherent to EU customs rules. It also calls for remote checks on products shipped to Northern Ireland from the UK mainland.

The border, which was a flashpoint for sectarian violence decades ago was almost non-existent when there were EU members to either side. The protocol set about making checkpoints and other border infrastructure unnecessary.

But the extra remote checks and infrastructure led to delays and shortages in the province and the UK's dissatisfaction with the deal it struck.

David Frost, the UK's Brexit minister and one of the architects of the Northern Ireland protocol, wrote in the Financial Times he had "underestimated" its impact on the movement of goods from the mainland and called for "pragmatic solutions between friends, not the imposition of one side's rules on the other".

The Guardian newspaper said businesspeople in Northern Ireland have grown tired of the UK and the EU each blaming the other for the protocol's failings.

The Northern Ireland business Brexit working group said in a statement as Frost, Sefcovic, and the rest of the EU-UK Joint Committee prepared to meet: "We cannot afford another missed opportunity at the joint committee … We need to see that not only are we being heard and understood, but that both the UK and EU are willing to work together to deal with the impact of the protocol."

The appeal came as US congressman James Walsh called on US President Joe Biden to intervene in Northern Ireland over fears that the Good Friday Agreement, which effectively ended decades of sectarian violence there, is being ignored in the confusion around the Northern Ireland protocol.

"We are increasingly concerned that the GFA is becoming collateral damage as a result of Brexit and the ongoing disputes over the Northern Ireland protocol," The Guardian quoted him as saying.