Last week, the European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic proposed a set of more pragmatic measures to resolve post Brexit issues in Northern Ireland. These included scrapping 80 percent of regulatory checks and enforcing customs processes on the movement of goods between Britain and Ireland. The proposals for the European Union have sadly fallen far short of what the UK wants, with Lord Frost demanding a complete overhaul of large parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Under the mechanism, the European Court of Justice ECJ would act as the final arbitrator in any future trade dispute between the two sides. Lord Frost wants this important provision removed and replaced by an independent arbitration process - but the EU is not caving to this demand - which will pave the way for several weeks of intensive talks between the two sides. The UK has threatened to trigger the Protocol by delaying Article 16, while the EU has warned it will retaliate and warn that it could start a bitter trade war with Britain. But one diplomat from a large EU member state has sent a huge warning to the UK, with the EU s so-called Maximum Facilitation Max Fac aims to demobilise GB-NI checks dependent upon the UK not diverging too much from the EU s regulatory approach.
The diplomat told Irish broadcaster RTE: Divergence is going to be a problem on the Irish Channel anyway. The UK opted to keep Northern Ireland inside the internal EU market for the purposes of keeping the border off the island of Ireland. Which put the border between England and NI. Theresa May's solution was different. I added the official: Now, if the UK is going to collapse then Max Fac will diverge. It won t be enough if they start diverging. Biden: Washington sends US President for Brexit that comes with Article 16 threat?
Trade war would blow huge hole in France as 250 BN in UK sales at risk REPORT Britons cheer plans for pact against Brexit-blanking Britain REACTION Same reasons UK wanted out! Verhofstadt compared the Poland row to Brexit COMMENTS The EU said that a very intense period of discussions is now underway but implied that they might not include the role of the ECJ. On Monday, the European Commission underlined a position held by Mr Ivan Sefcovic that the measures details laid out by Arianna Podesta on Wednesday were extensive and that discussions would not go much further than it were. When asked whether the talks will include the ECJ this week, she replied: We are following up on the package that we proposed on October 13 - it is a far-reaching package.