A poster reading No Irish Sea Border is attached on February 3, 2022 to a map post outside Larne port, north of Belfast in Northern Ireland. PAUL FAITH AFP BRUSSELS Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said on Monday that the European Union is ready to talk with Britain to deal with the issues in their Northern Irish trade dispute, but the current treaty of the Northern Ireland Protocol must remain.
This is about responding to the demands of Northern Ireland as a whole. He said that Northern Ireland voted against the EU's foreign ministers meeting in Brussels, where he said counterparts asked him for an update on the situation with London.
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That doesn't mean we shouldn't try to accomodate other positions. That's the approach we need to take, not threats of unilateral action, which are deeply unhelpful, he said of British calls to tear up the Northern Ireland protocol.