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The EU is trying to “reduce” Brexit tensions in Northern Ireland by setting up a new “clearing house” committee to find solutions to problems caused by new trade barriers, including checks in supermarkets. and the supply of chilled meat has emerged.
European Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič said that the introduction of the Northern Ireland protocol had been “administratively extremely challenging”, but that the EU was doing its best to “calm down” and stabilize the reaction on checks and balances. of merchandise entering the region. From great britain.
He told parliamentarians on Ireland’s European affairs committee that the UK rejected a transition period on issues such as “sausage supply chains” and that “initial problems” were inevitable.
“We knew this could happen. We have been discussing this with our UK partners for the last year. “
Barriers to supply chains have fueled local protests, anti-protocol graffiti, and an official campaign by the Democratic Unionist Party to remove protocol altogether.
Šefčovič said that a new clearinghouse would be set up to assess any political solutions and act as an early warning system to alert both the UK and the EU to problems arising locally.
But he added that the implementation of the protocol “is a shared responsibility” and that both parties have a responsibility to make it work. “It should always be a two-way street,” he said.
“We also have to acknowledge the fact that we knew from the beginning that the UK’s exit from the European Union, the customs union and the single market is a massive operation, that all disruption cannot be avoided.
“It was quite obvious from the beginning that there would be initial problems and I think we can solve them if we work very well together,” he told Dáil’s committee.
But he indicated there would be little flexibility around the protocol until the UK has fully implemented it, telling the committee that “official controls at border checkpoints are currently not performed in accordance with the withdrawal agreement protocol. and the rules of the European Union “.
There were “very few identity checks, a very limited number of physical checks” and the EU was unable to assess the impact of reliable trade schemes and simplified health certificates for products such as chilled food until it had “real time” access to customs data . .
He will meet with Northern Ireland business and civic leaders at an online summit on Thursday ahead of a joint committee meeting he chairs with Cabinet Minister Michael Gove, to be held no later than February 24.
He gave few details about the clearinghouse, but said he would evaluate political solutions to the protocol’s problems. It would be strengthened by the establishment of new Brexit structures, including an association council, which will also be chaired jointly by Gove and 19 ‘specialized committees’.
He told TDs and senators that he “deeply regrets” last month’s failed attempt to suspend part of the protocol on a row of EU vaccines and said there would be a monthly meeting of commissioners “with the greatest interest in this new EU relationship. -United Kingdom “to ensure that this mistake was not repeated.
