Urgent Solution Needed For North In Post-Brexit Arrangements – Sefcovic

Northern Ireland urgently needs stability in its post-Brexit arrangements and for Britain to come to an agreement with the European Union on how to ease their implementation, the European Commission has said.

EU Brexit point man and European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic met his British counterpart David Frost following a perceived thaw in relations as the London government appeared to step back from using the sensitive Article 16 clause of the Northern Ireland Protocol.

Sefcovic said the change in tone was welcome but that concrete progress needed to be made swiftly, while Lord Frost warned that Article 16 was still on the table.

“It is essential that the recent change in tone now leads to joint tangible solutions in the framework of the protocol,” Sefcovic said in a statement, pointing to the need for a deal to ensure the transit of medical supplies in particular.

There is a genuine urgency. We welcome the progress this week. We now need to press on and get this crucial issue across the line. This is a real test of political goodwill.”

The EU maintains that a package of proposals it has set out to ease the implementation of the protocol, designed to avoid the need for a hard border across the island after Brexit, would halve customs formalities and identity and physical checks by 80 per cent.