NEW: update on the earlier thread on @MarosSefcovic's comments on the NI Protocol...
2/ Following today's Specialised Committee mtg, which prepares the groundwork for tomorrow's more political Joint Committee (@michaelgove + Sefcovic), the message is that if the EU is to agree any extensions to grace periods they must be a bridge to a permanent settled state
3/ And any extensions will only be considered if the UK is showing it is implementing the Dec 17 Gove-Sefcovic deal on the Protocol (ie, granting access to databases etc)
4/ “The EU is linking any consideration of further grace periods to implementation by the UK of its commitments,” says one EU source, “and...that if there were to be a further extension of grace periods it would have to be a bridge to the permanent settled state.
5/ “We're not getting into a rolling period of extensions every six months or so.”
6/ It's understood that during the Specialised Committee meeting the EU side complained about the non-implementation of the Dec agreement, and that physical SPS checks were not being carried out. I'm told these complaints were robustly refutted by UK officials
7/ There appears to have been some confusion about whether both sides were referring to checks not being carried out because staff had been withdrawn due to alleged security threats, or that they weren't being done properly anyway
8/ It's understood both sides welcomed the outreach by @MarosSefcovic to NI businesses and civil society, and to the Brexit Stakeholders' Forum in Dublin
9/ It's understood the European Commission is exploring the potential idea of a bilateral EU UK veterinary agreement which officials, and NI businesses, say wd alleviate much of the GB-NI trade friction when it comes to food, plants, trees, seed potatoes etc
10/ There is talk of a Swiss style agreement, but caution advised: none of this has yet broken the surface, and EU officials say the UK rejected such an idea during the TCA negotiations.
11/ There are different models of veterinary agreements. The UK is likely to resist any which require regulatory alignment; the EU is unlikely to accept cherry-picked alignment for different products (excuse the pun)
12/ All told, it is clear there won't be any big breakthrough at tomorrow's Joint Committee, despite the heat around the joint unionist legal challenge to overturn the Protocol (the EU regards that as an internal UK matter). It will also be Michael Gove's last JC meeting
13/ "The best possible outcome will be the formalisation of the Joint Statement that came from the Gove-Sefcovic meeting in London [on Feb 10]," says a senior EU source. "That could be turned into: our experts will meet, we'll have some sort of process...
14/ "...we'll look at solutions collectively, pragmatically and see what we can do. Everybody recognises there are issues, we have to work together within the confines of the protocol, while respecting the integrity of the single market - all that kind of language.
15/ "and they will agree that all this work needs to be done urgently."
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