Germany & Ireland Denounce Boris’s Bid to Ditch N.Ireland Protocol

[Ladybbird]

NI Peace Architect Accuses Boris Johnson of Casual Political Vandalism

Jonathan Powell says PM and Brexit ministers risking fragile peace in Northern Ireland and ‘don’t seem to care’

The Guardian UK 3 JAN 2022.






One of the architects of the Northern Ireland peace deal has said Boris Johnson and the former Brexit minister Lord Frost have risked “all the work” the previous generation of politicians put into the Belfast Good Friday agreement by putting their hard ideological beliefs ahead of people.


Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair’s former chief of staff and chief negotiator on Northern Ireland, said he was concerned that neither the prime minister nor the recently resigned Brexit minister seemed to understand or care about the fragility of the political settlement in Northern Ireland in 1998.

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He also questioned why Frost had made the issue of the European court of justice a red line in negotiations on the Northern Ireland protocol when it was not responsible for either the practical difficulties in trade or the identity politics that has been heightened by the row over the Irish Sea border.

He said it was irresponsible to stoke the fears of one side or another or to fail to calm nerves about British identity after rioting on the streets earlier in 2020.

“What worries me is the casual political vandalism. They really don’t seem to care. I mean the damage they are doing to the very fragile political settlements in Northern Ireland, by posturing on things like the European court of justice, which do not matter to voters in Northern Ireland,” he said.

“They may matter to Boris Johnson and some supporters [in the government] and the ideological base.

“But is it really worth sacrificing all the work that previous generations of politicians put into the Northern Ireland peace process on the ideological altar of the ECJ?” he asked.

Lord Frost had repeatedly threatened to suspend parts of the protocol arrangements using its article 16 before he resigned as Brexit minister citing differences over tax policy and Covid restrictions.


While the appointment of the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, to succeed Frost was initially read as a reset moment, publicly she is presenting herself as the continuity negotiator.

“The UK position has not changed. We need goods to flow freely between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, end the role of the ECJ as the final arbiter of disputes between us, and resolve other issues,” she said before Christmas.

Powell warned the institutions of devolved government could collapse unless the British government focused on the practical problems created by the post-Brexit customs and physical checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea.

While he doesn’t expect a return to the troubles of the past, he said Brexit created an ongoing issue in Northern Ireland.

“You have to face up to the fact that Brexit requires someone to get hurt.

“There is nothing you can do about the political issue of identity given the history of two communities in Northern Ireland. But there is going to be a border because of Brexit and it has to be somewhere. No one’s come up with a better idea than in the Irish Sea. If it is there, it affects unionist identity and what you have to do is ameliorate the impact of it,” he said.

His comments came after not just the transfer of power from Frost to Truss but a changing political landscape south of the Irish border.

“Brexit has put talk of a united Ireland firmly on the agenda south of the border and the government needs to pay attention to this and to understand how that is also fuelling unionist fears about the future of Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom,” he said.

“Identity politics is going to keep coming back. Imagine if you have a border poll on a united Ireland and 48% for remaining in the United Kingdom, a bit like the Brexit referendum.

“People don’t want to address that problem. I understand. But it’s the fear of that that’s causing the trouble.”

In an interview published on Sunday, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, said Truss should set a deadline for the talks with the EU over the protocol. He would not say how much longer should be allowed, but he told the Sunday Telegraph: “January is going to be an absolutely crucial month.”

And if the deadline passed without a deal acceptable to the UK, the government should trigger article 16, he said.

“If we don’t get rapid and decisive progress, and one side or the other is kicking the can down the road, this will have major implications for the stability of the political institutions in Northern Ireland,” he said.

[Ladybbird]

EU's Brexit Enforcer Warns of Northern Ireland Consequences to Triggering Article 16

Liz Truss: I’ll use Article 16 if EU won’t bend on Northern Ireland

More than 230,000 EU citizens have applied to live and work in the UK after the deadline passed in June, figures reveal

EU citizens and families were asked to apply by June 30 to live and work in UK

Total 236,840 applications received after the deadline and up to end of October

Since the scheme launched, over six million applications have been submitted

Home Office said eight per cent of applications were from 'repeat applicants'

The Sun UK & Ireland 9 JAN 2022.









Liz Truss will insist on Sunday that Britain will overhaul the post-Brexit agreement over Northern Ireland unilaterally if she cannot reach a “negotiated solution” with the EU. Writing in The Telegraph in her first intervention as Boris Johnson’s new Brexit negotiator,

The European Commission's Brexit enforcer Maros Sefcovic warned the British government that triggering Article 16 will have 'serious consequences' for both Northern Ireland's stability as well as UK relations with the EU.





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[Ladybbird]

Germany and Ireland Denounce Boris Johnson’s Bid to Ditch Northern Ireland Protocol

Rare joint declaration indicates hardening of EU position on plans that more than 70 Tory MPs failed to vote for

The Guardian UK 3 JUL 2022







Boris Johnson has been warned there is “no legal or political justification” for his plans to override the Brexit agreement on Northern Ireland, in an extraordinary joint denunciation by the Irish and German governments.

Northern Ireland wants stability. Tearing up the Brexit agreement will put peace and prosperity at risk


With senior figures already warning Johnson that he risks the break-up of the union by ploughing ahead with the plan, the German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock and her Irish counterpart Simon Coveney make a rare joint statement condemning the UK for “unilaterally breaking an international agreement”.

Writing in the Observer, the two ministers suggest that Johnson’s determination to effectively override the so-called Northern Ireland protocol, which he agreed two years ago, risks undermining the “rules-based international order” just as the continent is attempting to confront Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.

The two ministers say that recent elections to Northern Ireland’s assembly, which delivered a majority of members who back the protocol, showed support for the current arrangements. They add that the EU had been and would continue to be “flexible and creative” to deal with issues that have hampered trade between the region and Great Britain.

“Unfortunately, the British government chose not to engage in good faith with these proposals,” they write. “Instead of the path of partnership and dialogue, the British government has chosen unilateralism. There is no legal or political justification for unilaterally breaking an international agreement entered into only two years ago.


The tabling of legislation this month will not fix the challenges around the protocol. Instead, it will create a new set of uncertainties and make it more challenging to find durable solutions.

“In these difficult times, as Russia is leading a ruthless war in Ukraine, breaking with our European peace order, the EU and UK must stand together as partners with shared values and a commitment to uphold and strengthen the rules-based international order.

Leo Varadkar said the UK government’s actions were disrespectful.


“We urge the British government to step back from their unilateral approach and show the same pragmatism and readiness to compromise that the EU has shown. By working together – in partnership and with mutual respect – common ground can be found and challenges, no matter how difficult, can be overcome.”

The intervention shows a coordinated effort within the EU to back Ireland in the dispute, as well as a hardening of Germany’s position on Brexit with the arrival of the new German chancellor, Olaf Scholz. It will intensify concerns that Johnson’s decision to press ahead with the Northern Ireland protocol bill, which many legal experts believe breaches international law, will trigger a trade war with the EU as inflation continues to hit.


While the UK’s proposals passed their latest parliamentary vote last week, more than 70 Tory MPs abstained or were given permission to miss the vote. The proposals were also criticised as breaching international law by former PM Theresa May. Other senior figures not to cast a vote included the former Northern Ireland secretaries Julian Smith and Karen Bradley, and Johnson’s former attorney-general, Geoffrey Cox.

Some MPs are already plotting ways to stop the government from deploying the plans, which effectively override the existing agreement. One plan, drawn up by Sir Bob Neill, the chair of the justice committee, would hand parliament a veto over whether or not the new powers in the bill could be deployed.

Anger has been growing in Dublin since the bill was published. Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s deputy prime minister, last week accused the British government of risking the break-up of the UK with its handling of Northern Ireland. Varadkar, who is due to succeed Micheál Martin as taoiseach later this year, agreed the principles of the protocol in talks with Johnson in 2019.

He said last week that the UK government’s actions were disrespectful. “I think that’s a strategic mistake for people who want to maintain the union, because if you continue to impose things on Northern Ireland that a clear majority of people don’t want, that means more people will turn away from the union,” he told the BBC. “It’s a peculiar policy coming from a government that purports to want to defend the union.”

Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, has claimed that proposals put forward by the EU to resolve some of the trade issues created by the protocol would create more unwanted bureaucracy.