Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has played down prospects of reaching a deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol just days after UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak stated that there was a new ‘window of opportunity’ to conclude talks.
Appearing before the European Scrutiny committee in the House of Commons on Tuesday, Cleverly said that although the mood of talks with EU officials had improved, there was still “serious work to do”.
“I don’t want people to be defeatist, but I also don’t want people to run away with the idea that we’re just on the cusp of some amazing breakthrough,” he said.
The six weeks of Liz Truss’s government brought a shift towards a more positive atmosphere between UK and EU officials, which appears to have continued under Sunak’s government.
However, Cleverly’s comments appear to follow a ‘good cop, bad cop’ pattern in which one UK minister or EU official plays up the prospect of an imminent agreement before another calms expectations.
Last Friday, Sunak said that a new “window of opportunity” combined with “goodwill and pragmatism” could soon lead to an agreement on the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol after holding talks with Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the British-Irish Council.
(Benjamin Fox | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
