David Frost: The EU must revisit the Northern Ireland Agreement

The author is the Minister of Brexit

This week, the Vice-President of the European Commission Maros Sefcovic and I will meet in London with the first UK/EU Partnership Committee established under our new trade agreement. This is a historic moment. For all the early frictions, in view of the tremendous changes in our relationship, I believe that we can serve as friendly trading partners and sovereign equality to resolve ongoing difficulties.

We will also review the operation of the withdrawal agreement and the Northern Ireland agreement. Things are more difficult here.

When we agreed to this new agreement in 2019, we did it to remove the old catastrophic “support” and to enable Brexit to happen, but the way to do this was to keep us protecting Belfast ) Agreement’s overriding priority and avoiding hard boundaries. This is a delicate balance, formed in the spirit of compromise. We hope to be able to operate it in a way that respects the sensitive politics of Northern Ireland-after all, this is the focus of special arrangements first.

We now have experience in operating agreements. The current government has invested a lot of resources to make it work. We have a trader support program to help those who ship goods to Northern Ireland, we fund veterinarians and health certificates, and we conduct inspections in Larne and Belfast. We enforce EU laws in Northern Ireland as needed. We will not speak on whether we are implementing the agreement-we are implementing it.

But because we operate under the legal framework of the European Union, we have very limited discretion to operate the rules in a meaningful way in Northern Ireland.

As a result, the balance we wanted was not found.We see political turmoil Lost Chief Minister Arlene Fosterr, UUP leadership changes and street protests. And it has a real-world impact on life and livelihood. We underestimated the impact of the agreement on the transportation of goods in Northern Ireland. Some suppliers in the UK did not ship their products at all due to the time-consuming paperwork. We have seen drug manufacturers cut supplies. Consumers have fewer choices on supermarket shelves. The NI Retail Alliance warned that when the grace period ends in October, supermarkets will face “real, serious problems.”

We are working day and night to resolve these issues by consensus. We have sent a series of policy documents to the European Union to outline the solution. Just last week, we sent a detailed proposal for a veterinary agreement based on equivalence and an authorized dealer program designed to reduce paperwork and inspections. But our return is very small.

We want a method based on the best interests of everyone in Northern Ireland. This means putting the Good Friday agreement first, supporting rather than undermining political processes and institutions. This is also fully compatible with the prudent risk-based approach of protecting the EU single market. As a neighboring country and exporting country, we have assumed our responsibility in this regard.

But this also requires common sense and a risk-based approach from the EU. The EU needs a new playbook for dealing with neighboring countries, which involves pragmatic solutions between friends, rather than imposing rules on one side and legal purism.

In 2019, we agreed, as a huge compromise, to control the flow of certain goods for the greater good within Our own country and customs territory. If this situation is not completely unsustainable, we need to be able to do it in a way that does not disrupt daily life and respects the identity and interests of everyone. We will continue to work hard to find a negotiated solution to achieve this goal. But time began to run out. We need to see progress as soon as possible. I hope we can this week.