NEW: The EU’s chief Brexit negotiator has told EU member states there is a clear link between the free trade deal with Britain and the Northern Ireland Protocol, @rtenews understands.
2/ In referring to the UK's continued threats to trigger Article 16, thus suspending all or part of the Protocol, @MarosSefcovic is understood to have said the Trade and Cooperation Agreement was contingent on the sequencing in the divorce negotiations, including the Irish border
3/ “That sequencing could be endangered depending on how Article 16 was triggered,” says one source present at the meeting. “So, while [Sefcovic] didn't explicitly promise to say or do anything [if Article 16 were triggered], he did raise that link. He pointed it out.”
4/ In a downbeat assessment of the ongoing technical talks between the EU and UK, Mr Sefcovic told EU ambassadors in Brussels that the European Commission would formally set out its options to member states next week on how it should respond to a triggering of Article 16.
5/ Talks have been underway for four weeks on a set of EU proposals designed to make the Protocol more manageable for citizens, business and stakeholders in Northern Ireland.
6/ The proposals cover the circulation of medicines, customs, agrifood checks and controls, and an enhanced oversight role for Northern Ireland institutions and businesses.
7/ Mr Sefcovic, a vice-president of the European Commission, said that technical teams on both sides had attempted to develop a paper that would set out areas of common agreement in the talks so far.
8/ However, he said that his UK opposite number David Frost had been reluctant to give the paper political backing.
Mr Sefcovic is said to have emphasised that the EU would continue to, as he put it, speak directly to the concerns of people in Northern Ireland.
Mr Sefcovic is said to have emphasised that the EU would continue to, as he put it, speak directly to the concerns of people in Northern Ireland.
9/ He told ambassadors he would have further talks with Northern Irish businesses and stakeholders tomorrow.
10/ Member states are understood to have supported Mr Sefcovic’s continuing efforts in the talks. A number of ambassadors are understood to have called for a “calm, methodical and proportionate” response if the UK triggers Article 16.
11/ However, France and Germany both signalled that a robust response should follow (Germany, surprisingly so, acc to one source)
12/ It’s understood that member states stressed the need for EU unity on the issue.
Ireland is understood to have strongly supported the ongoing technical talks and that the ideal solution would be an agreed way forward.
Ireland is understood to have strongly supported the ongoing technical talks and that the ideal solution would be an agreed way forward.
13/ However, the govt is said to have mentioned the insistent references to invoking Article 16 by Frost and that, according to one account, these “had to be taken seriously, that the EU had to prepare and that the response would have to match whatever way Article 16 was invoked”
14/ It’s understood Ireland also said that no matter what emerged in the talks or beyond, the EU should ensure that it would always be possible to “return to the full implementation of the Protocol...
15/ and that we shouldn’t do anything that will be irreversible, or make a return to the Protocol impossible.”
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