The final pulse has arrived? from the United Kingdom to the European Union with a single objective: to have London solve its supply crisis. David Frost, British Secretary of State for Brexit, insisted on Tuesday in Lisbon that, in order to improve relations between the United Kingdom and the EU, the conditions that were agreed in Brexit regarding the Northern Ireland Protocol would first have to be renegotiated .
London wants judicial oversight of the implementation of the treaty in the region by the Court of Justice of the EU. “It is not just about the court itself. It is the very system of which the court is the apex, a system whereby laws are applied in Northern Ireland without any democratic scrutiny or discussion, ” he said. Given this, Downing Street has sent a proposal to Brussels.
The conversation would then enter into the most swampy terrain possible. Regarding that part of the agreement, Northern Ireland continues to be linked to the single community market, so goods that cross between that territory and the rest of the United Kingdom must pass customs controls in the region’s ports, in order to ensure that the The border between the two Ireland remains invisible, which was the only way not to violate the Good Friday agreements. But for London now the scene has changed.
Last table, the United Kingdom again unilaterally postponed post-Brexit customs controls in the British province of Northern Ireland for the third time , a matter that had already led to the opening of a file with the United Kingdom in Brussels. In the midst of this tug of war, Frost has also considered that the Union is not doing enough to resolve the matter.
Relationships that he described, in a speech delivered at the British Embassy in Portugal, as “loose balance” and “somewhat rebellious”, although, in his opinion, “it does not always have to be that way.” Frost referred to the fact that Brexit has modified the international interests of the United Kingdom and, therefore, will change its rules of “European relations” , and said that London will mark a different path in economic policy.
To solve the “conflictive” situation between the United Kingdom and the EU, both parties are necessary, insisted Frost, who made it clear that “the serious problem” of the application of the Northern Ireland Protocol must first be solved.
In this sense, the Vice President of the European Commission for Interinstitutional Relations, Maros Sefcovic, confirmed on October 7 that he will present this week to the United Kingdom a package of proposals to find “practical solutions” for Northern Ireland after Brexit . Sefcovic trusts that during October and November a period of “intense talks” will open to reach “clear progress” on the application of the Northern Irish Protocol “at the end of the year.”