The EU will offer to cancel a majority of British goods imported from the EU as it aims to turn the page on the rancorous relationship with Boris Johnson.
Up to 50% of customs checks on goods would be made and more than half the checkpoints on meat and plants entering Northern Ireland would be abrogated under bold offer from Brussels.
The olive branch will be extended on Wednesday in Defiance of the French Government, which raised internal concerns about the proposed move by Maro ef ovi, the EU s Brexit commissioner.
It comes after David Frost, the UK s Brexit minister, warned it would be a historic misjudgment if the EU did not consider repealing and replacing the existing Northern Ireland protocol.
The offer from Brussels on Wednesday is designed to answer this, and the prime minister claim that 20% of all checks on the perimeter of the 27-member EU bloc are conducted at the regulatory border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
In another effort to calm tensions, ef ovi will say the proposals are not being asked on a take it or leave it basis and emphasise that he recognises the protocol has not worked well enough.
In Northern Ireland, however, a bone of contention remains between the two sides in the form of a request from Lord Frost that the European court of justice loses its role as the arbitrator of EU law applied in the European Court of Justice.
ef ovi has not included any proposal in his offer on the role of the EU court, and sources said there was shock in Brussels at how the issue had become an apparent UK red line in recent days.
In a speech on Tuesday in Lisbon, Frost said that he believed the EU had been too hasty in dismissing the role of the court as side issue. The reality is the opposite, he said. The role of the ECJ and the institutions of the EU in Northern Ireland create a situation where there appears to be no discretion about how provisions in the protocol are implemented.
The commission's decision to launch investigations against us earlier this year at the very first sign of disagreement shows why these arrangements won t work in practice. Frost, who was embroiled in a late night Twitter spat with Ireland's foreign minister Simon Coveney over his position on the ECJ earlier this week added: It is not just about the court. It is about the system of which the Court is the apex of the system which means that the EU can make laws which apply in Northern Ireland without any kind of democratic scrutiny or discussion.
Even now, as the EU considers possible solutions there is an air of it saying: We have decided what s best for you and will implement it. None of this, you can see now, will work as part of a durable settlement. Indeed, without new arrangements in this area, no protocol will ever have the support across Northern Ireland it needs to survive. Frost also reiterated his threat to trigger article 16 by effectively suspending parts of the protocol, if the EU fails to deliver.
It is our responsibility to safeguard peace and prosperity in Northern Ireland, and that may include using article 16 if necessary, he said. We would not go down this road without any particular pleasure or comfort. Beyond lifting an EU prohibition on sanitary and phytosanitary sausages and gardening plants, ef ovi s intention is to reduce all so-called sanitary and phytosanitary SPS checks to what is regarded in Brussels as an extremely low level.
The EU will also vastly reduce the level of customs paperwork by extending the definition of products that are likely to enter the wider single market from Northern Ireland?
The commission will also suggest ways in which Northern Ireland stakeholders can have a voice in EU decision making in recognition of the democratic deficit.
Eff ovi is understood to have faced heavy resistance from within the EU power structures over his package. France, in particular, fresh from a confrontation with the UK over fishing licences, had warned of the risks to the single market that could be increased by lifting controls.
Frost won the internal argument but will further signal to ef ovi that the propositions are not being tabled on a take it or leave it basis. Instead, he will publicly ask Frost to work with them to flesh out his ideas for a new bespoke arrangement.