The Secretary of State for Brexit David Frost has claimed on Tuesday the replacement of the Protocol of Ireland by a new agreement and has warned the EU that it would commit an "error of historical judgment" if it waives a renegotiation with London of the most controversial point of the Agreement of Brexit.
Frost's statements, during a speech in Lisbon, have created a great discomfort in the European Commission, which on Wednesday will make public position public to "improve" the Protocol, but in no case renounce it or renegotiate it from scratch. The lack of agreement between Brussels and London for the issue of Northern Ireland could ultimately unleash a commercial war of unpredictable consequences.
Without even waiting for the EU to present its proposals, including "exemptions to national identity products" between Great Britain Northern Ireland to end the so-called "Sausage War", the United Kingdom has warned that you can activate Unilaterally in the coming weeks the "hand brake" envisaged in article 16 of the legal text.
In his third speech in a month, David Frost went beyond his previous threats and reapplies even to the EU of having used the Ireland Protocol to "encourage political forces to go around the result of the referendum, or to the Less to stay aligned. "
"The Protocol has been the largest source of distrust between us and we have all the reasons to try to fix this," Frost added, which also claimed that the EU was "extremely" at the time of negotiation and acknowledged that the United Kingdom knew that the United Kingdom knew beforehand that "some parts of the protocol were going to be problematic."
The Secretary of State for Brexit admitted that his country has maintained an "irascible relationship" with the EU and urged Brussels to understand that the United Kingdom "has no interest in adapting to EU rules" and that a fundamental element From the withdrawal was the "democracy".
The root of the problem is that the protocol establishes the closest to an internal custom in the sea of Ireland, precisely to avoid returning to a hard border within the island. Unlike the rest of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland continues aligned with the single market, which forces to establish Belfast controls and its main ports.
Since the end of the Brexit Transition Period, last January, EU controls caused supplies problems in supermarkets. The social discomfort was taken advantage of by the unionist forces to light the wick of the disturbances of last April, in one of the greatest episodes of violence in Belfast since the signing of the Good Friday Peace Agreement in 1998.
The four unionist parties have now made common cause and have pressed London to renounce the Ireland Protocol. Jeffrey Donaldson, a leader of the Unionist Democratic Party (DUP), has even threatened to leave the government of unity in the Ulster and force early elections this year.
From the other side of the border, the Foreign Secretary of the Republic of Ireland, Simon Coveney, has become a personal struggle with David Frost and has thus denounced the attitude of the British government in recent months: "A point where the EU is going to say: We have already had enough and we can not reach any more commitment. We do not know in fact if what the UK wants is to continue advancing or breaking the relationships. "
Date Of Update: 15 October 2021, 08:41
