Depending on our understanding, this may include ads by us and 3 rd parties. Officials from five EU member states held crunch talks with the bloc's Brexit negotiator earlier this week and are said to have discussed retaliatory measures if negotiations between Northern Ireland and the UK collapsed. One diplomat tells the Financial Times that officials want the European Commission to come up with a legally sound, proportionate and robust response Such measures thought to have been considered include banning UK s access to energy supplies in Europe, imposing tariffs on British exports or even cancelling the Brexit agreement. The meeting took place with officials from France, Germany, Spain, Italy and The Netherlands on Monday. It was sanctioned after Lord David Frost repeatedly refused to rule out triggering Article 16 of the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol on the UK s immigration minister. The emergency mechanism would unilaterally suspend the international agreement and stop checks on goods in Northern Ireland.
The protocol, created as part of the Jan 2020 withdrawal agreement in Brexit, was signed to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland. As a result, Northern Ireland remained part of the EU regulatory framework and Unionists argue this has effectively placed a trade barrier in the Irish Sea. Lord Frost and Maros Sefcovic will continue this morning in Brussels with vice president Mieskar Flanier. The Brexit negotiators will analyse the proposals put forward by the UK in a Command Paper in July, which called for the removal of a number of checks on goods in Northern Ireland and the involvement of the European Court of Justice. READ MORE: Brexit LIVE: Furious Frost to lay down laws in European showdown between the Allies.
This week, the EU finally shifted the dial and put forward a plan to reduce custom checks on 80 percent of goods flowing through Northern Ireland but has repeatedly barred a renegotiation of the entire deal. Ahead of the talks, Lord Frost is braced for further demands from the UK and has issued a warning to Lord Frost. One EU diplomat told the FT: There is a significant chance that Frost will say We want the moon They added: Frost knows he is playing with fire. Rejoin EU activist mocked after Anti-Brexit campaign claims INSIGHT 'Beatrice and Eugenie are phenomenal mothers! Fergie says BBC Weather: UK braces for icy blast weekend before temperature spike ForECAST The EU has a broad palette of options for hitting back at the UK, for example, energy supplies. Lord Frost has said that the UK is looking at the EU proposals constructively and warned there is a long way to go Lord Frost is set to tell his EU counterpart that there need movement on the oversight of the European Court of Justice on UK affairs. He told Politico: They will need to if we were to find a solution, there needs to be significant change if we are to get an agreed solution. All I can say is the governance issue needs to be addressed seriously and if the EU are willing to have a conversation about that they move off existing positions obviously we will be happy to have that conversation.