The promise of ‘white smoke’ and an agreement on the Northern Ireland protocol on Monday turned out to be another false dawn.
After officials had briefed reporters that the latest round of talks between UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, which follow an agreement last week between London and Brussels over access to trade data, there had been hope that a deal on the movement of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland could be in sight.
Instead, the two sides said in a statement that “scoping work” for potential solutions should continue in “a constructive and collaborative spirit” and stressed the “need to find solutions together to tackle comprehensively the real-life concerns of all communities in Northern Ireland and protect both Northern Ireland’s place in the UK’s internal market and the integrity of the EU’s single market.”
There have been movements in recent weeks, with Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar describing the terms of the protocol as ‘too strict’ and the EU accepting that goods that are staying in Northern Ireland should be subject to a lighter touch, while the UK has hinted that it could be ready to scrap its own legislation on the protocol.
(Benjamin Fox | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
