A senior EU official has urged Boris Johnson's government to move on from Brexit and work with the bloc in the face of Russia's brutal war against Ukraine.
Maro ef ovi, the European Commission's vice-president who is responsible for UK relations, repeated his criticism of the government's illegal plan to rip up parts of the Northern Ireland protocol two days after the bill cleared its first hurdle in the House of Commons.
He made his most direct appeal to London to turn the page. It's high time we get out of the EU and turn the prime minister's 2019 election slogan against him, ef ovi said. He stated that the EU and the UK are natural allies in the face of Russia's brutal and unjustified war against Ukraine. Where the rules-based order is under pressure, strengthening western unity should be our moral imperative. He spoke at Bloomberg's headquarters in London where David Cameron launched his ill-fated attempt to renegotiate the UK's place in the EU nine and a half years ago.
In a speech from 2013, the Conservative prime minister said Britain would remain tied to the EU by a complex web of legal commitments. If we leave the EU, we can't leave Europe", Cameron said, a line ef ovi quoted as he appealed for strong strategic EU-UK relations. In a pointed rebuke to the current prime minister's position on the Brexit withdrawal deal signed with the EU in 2019, he said: "I agree with Prime Minister Johnson's assessment from 2019 that the protocol is fully compatible with the Good Friday Belfast agreement. Northern Ireland is largely in the EU's single market because of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, which prevents a hard border on the island of Ireland.
The protocol offered Northern Ireland the best of both worlds, or having the jam on both sides of the bread Under the agreement the region can trade easily with the EU, as well as benefit from any trade deals the UK signs with the rest of the world, according to a Slovakian official.
He said that the protocol is a suitable arrangement and that it has a negative impact on political stability in Northern Ireland and British relations with the Irish republic, but he said it is extremely disappointing that a majority of people in Northern Ireland can appreciate the positive benefits and opportunities that the protocol brings.
ef ovi said it was unrealistic and unfair for London to expect all barriers to be removed when goods travel to Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.
The government said businesses should be able to choose between a British or EU regulatory regime, which ovi said would bury them under a mountain of bureaucracy. Privately, commission officials have expressed doubts that the Northern Ireland protocol bill will become law, although Johnson predicted it will be on the statute books by the end of the year.